Communications
Minister Lambert Mende did not have an official death toll, saying only that
some of the assailants had been killed or wounded, while others were arrested.
However, a witness near the presidential residence reported seeing the bodies
of seven attackers and two guards.
While
eastern Congo is highly volatile with a myriad of rebel groups and militias who
terrorize civilians, such violence in the capital of Kinshasa is more rare.
President
Joseph Kabila was elected in 2006 in the country’s first democratic election
and is expected to run again in the upcoming November vote. He first inherited
his job from his father, Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated in 2001.
The
mineral-rich Central African nation was ravaged by years of dictatorship and
civil war, keeping its people from profiting from vast reserves of diamonds,
gold and other resources.
