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State TV and radio headquarters attacked in Congo

Media report about coup attempt

© EPA/DAI KUROKAWA

PRETORIA, December 30. /ITAR-TASS/. The army of Democratic Republic of Congo has fought off from the alleged coupists the building of state TV and radio and recovered control over the capital on Monday, as reported by the country’s government.

Earlier, fierce fighting was underway in Kinshasa. According to media reports, divisions of the army, police and the republican household troops faced confrontation from backers of religious figure Paul Joseph Mukungubila. They made a coup attempt, invaded the TV headquarters and declared on air their determination “to free the Congolese from slavery imposed by Ruanda”. After that, the broadcast stopped.

Mukungubila ran for president of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006, when the current head of state Joseph Kabila won. The clergyman is believed to be against the peace treaty, signed recently by the government and rebels from the М23 movement that were spreading terror in the eastern part of the country. Mukungubila accuses the president of political capitulation to Ruanda and the tutsi. The father of Joseph Kabila, ex-president Laurent-Desire Kabila won in the civil war with the assistance of the tutsi, whose representatives hold power in Uganda, Ruanda and Burundi.

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