At mid-morning this Sunday, several high explosive deflagrations shook
houses to their foundations. A TV remote-control I was holding fell
from my hand when the house shook.
Billows of smoke loomed over the northern horizon of Kinshasa, the
downtown area, particularly over the Gare Centrale.
Panic started spreading throughout the city as people feared that a
coup or a mutiny was in progress.
Soon afterwards, however, the government-owned TV station RTNC
interrupted its regular programming to announce that the explosions
were occurring on the right bank of the Congo River--that is, in
Brazzaville, the capital city of the other Congo.
Subsequently, Euro News and Brazzaville TV stations reported that
there was an "accidental" fire that caused the explosives to blow up
at the armory of the Mpila armored regimental barracks in Brazza.
According to diplomatic sources (Euro News), the death toll stands
this evening at 200 killed (and more than 1,500 injured).
This deadly accident occurs shortly after Congo-Brazza announced plans
to start building this year new barracks in the periphery of
Brazzaville where barracks now existing in the capital city would be
moved. (Kinshasa government plans the same move.)
A few explosives landed in Kinshasa where glass window and door panes
were shattered in government buildings and private homes located
downtown.
Ominously an unexploded ordnance landed just a stone's throw from the
armory and logistical base at Kokolo barracks where, decades ago, a
similiar accident had happened with deadly consequences.
That both Congolese governments should continue to keep huge armories
containing such deadly ordnances within the precincts of their
heavily-settled capital cities is a testament to their lack of
foresight.
2) Cat's cradle within Presidential Majority parties for premiership
In a previous post, I hazarded the prediction that the oncoming Prime
Minister would come from PALU party--and that PM Adolphe Muzito would
in all likelihood keep his job.
Well, I was wrong.
For one, Muzito has just thrown in the towel, in a letter to Kabila in
which he told the prez he'd rather be an MP than work in the executive
branch.
For the other, though PALU and its leader, former PM Antoine Gizenga,
were key to Kabila win in Bandundu Province with their endorsement of
the incumbent, PALU has in fact lost its position as the second
strongest party in parliament within the alliance with the
Presidential Majority.
The MSR (Mouvement Social pour le Renouveau) party has taken that
position and wants the new premier to come from its ranks. This
ambition doesn't sit well with others within the Presidential
Majority.
A complex game of cat's craddle is thus now being played between major
parties of the Presidential Majority vying for premiership--which
makes the guessing game all the more difficult, though a consensus is
still holding around the proposition that the next prime minister will
still be a politico from Bandundu Province.
3) UDPS goes to parliament
At a press briefing held over the week's end, UDPS MP-elects announced
they've finally decided to go to parliament--though they still
continued to cast doubts over the validity of the very elections which
had them voted as MPs!
This strange caucus of nitwits has still to explain and live with the
exclusion of the acting speaker from their party decided by their
harebrained leader.
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