Congolese Pray Amid Rebel War

With their nation embroiled in a rebel war that threatens to topple President Laurent Kabila's 15-month-old regime, Kinshasa's Christians are turning to their church for comfort.

Hundreds of Congolese crowded into the rowdy and music-filled Pentecostal church Sunday to hear distorted but soothing words of faith and love and prayers for peace.

Tensions in Kinshasa have been building throughout the week, fueled by power outages, water shortages and an exodus of foreigners.

Congolese rebels tightened their noose around the capital Kinshasa on Sunday after taking control of the country's two main ports, the main hydroelectric dam and an oil pipeline despite government claims to the contrary, witnesses said.

"We are piling pressure on the regime in Kinshasa," said commander Dieudonne Kabengele, whose forces took Inga, Boma, and Matadi without a fight two days ago.

A simple order from Kabengele could plunge Kinshasa into total darkness and halt mainstay mining activities in Kolwezi, Kipushi, and Lubumbashi in the southern Shaba province.

Kabengele said electricity would be cut only when rebels reached the city but added that fuel supplies in Kinshasa would end as stocks and volumes in the pipe ran out.

"We can turn off the power to Kinshasa if we want but so far we have not been told to do so. This is the only source of electricity for Kinshasa," Inga dam chief engineer Daniel Massampu told Reuters.

President Laurent Kabila returned to Kinshasa on Sunday, pledging to stay put and defeat Rwandan-backed rebels fighting to oust him.
His return, after a visit to his home province of Katanga and talks in Angola, coincided with claims from the rebels that their advance units had clashed with government forces just 80 miles southwest of Kinshasa.

Hundreds of foreign nationals flew out of the city over the weekend on flights organized by former colonial power Belgium, South Africa and the United States and on a ferry across the Congo River organized by France.

"We are here to stay. Whatever happens, the aggressors will fail," an upbeat Kabila told state television on his arrival in the capital.

The U.S. Embassy was shut down in Congo Saturday and its remaining staff was flown out of the country as the rebels approached the capital.

The 20 Americans remaining in Congo left by a chartered plane, State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Young said. At the White House, National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said the flight would take official U.S. personnel to Yaounde, Cameroon.