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DR Congo

Chadian troops in Congo to back Kabila

KINSHASA, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Troops from Chad have deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to fight alongside forces backing President Laurent Kabila against rebels, a Congolese government minister said on Tuesday.
Presidential Affairs Minister Pierre-Victor Mpoyo said the Chadians would take part in a major counter-offfensive due to be launched soon in rebel-held towns in the eastern Congo.

"It's official now. Chad has organised itself to assist a friendly country. The first contingent of Chadian troops was deployed in our country yersterday," Mpoyo told Reuters.

He said Chad had offered a first contigent of more than 1,000 troops as well as logistics. But he declined to say specifically where the Chadian forces had been deployed.

Chad's entry into the war marks a further widening in the conflict in the former Zaire which erupted on August 2 with a rebellion spearheaded by ethnic Tutsis in Kabila's army. Kabila accuses Rwanda and Uganda of invading to back the rebels.

Troops from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia came to Kabila's rescue and managed to prevent a rebel takeover of the capital Kinshasa late last month. They also evicted insurgents from the west of the sprawling country but rebels still hold vast stretches of territory in the east.