Lusaka - African leaders gathered here yesterday for a make-or-break summit today to revive a peace deal for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Zimbabwean President, Mr Robert Mugabe, who heads a three-nation southern African military alliance backing Congolese President Laurent Kabila, was the first to arrive. Mr Mugabe has sent 15,000 troops, tanks and warplanes to support the government of the Congo, Africa's third largest nation. Angola and Namibia too have sent smaller numbers of troops to help it fight rebel armies who have foreign backing of their own.
Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa arrived shortly after Mr Mugabe. Zambian officials said South African President Thabo Mbeki, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and other heads of state, as well as rebel leaders, were due later. Mediator and Zambian President Frederick Chiluba expressed confidence the Lusaka talks would rescue Congo's collapsing peace deal, signed in Lusaka in July 1999. Regional analysts say failure in the Lusaka talks could lead to a resumption of full-scale war in the Congo, a country the size of Europe.