CONGO: BRAZZAVILLE: CAPITAL TRANSFORMED INTO A VIRTUAL GHOST TOWN

(23 Sep 1997) French/Nat

The once thriving Congolese capital Brazzaville has been transformed into a virtual ghost town following four months of fighting in the country's bitter civil war.

Almost all the residents of the city have fled and those that remain are too frightened to venture out. The streets are deserted, but for marauding bands of soldiers.

APTV has this special report.

The Congolese capital of Brazzaville has been ravaged over the last four months by a bitter civil war.

Nearly all the town's civilian population has fled to the countryside or across the river to Kinshasa, in neighbouring Congo.

Aid workers say only about 10 percent of the city's 800-thousand residents remain.

The streets are now the domain of militia members from both sides.

But the capital is held by rebel soldiers loyal to ex-president Sassou Nguesso.

His rebel troops are known as the Cobras.

For them, this is a war with few trained soldiers, little discipline and scarcely any vehicles.

In Cobra-held territory electricity and telephones are nearly non-existant and fuel
is in short supply.

But the Cobras say they will continue fighting to protect what is important to them despite their poor equipment.

SOUNDBITE:(French)
"We are not fighting because we like it or for personal reasons of finance or anything else. The reason we are fighting is the protection of our families".
SUPER CAPTION: Cobra Fighter

The badly armed fighters have managed to hold at bay the better supplied troops of President Pascal Lissouba and have captured three quarters of the country, as well as holding their positions in the capital.

Gunfire echoes regularly around the wreckage of the town, and the few people living there, the Cobras included, live in fear of Lissouba's helicopters, which have recently begun dropping heavy bombs.

Outside the compound of former president Sassou Nguesso is a reminder of the origins of the war.

This armoured personnel carrier was sent by President Lissouba to kill Sassou Nguesso in a move which sparked the conflict.

The former president left Brazzaville when the fighting got too close for comfort.

But his troops remain, patrolling the streets and manning checkpoints, their bravery fuelled by beer and their AK-47s, the only commodities they seem to have enough of.

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