KINSHASA, Zaire — Guerrillas from Laurent Kabila's rebel army marched triumphantly into this sprawling capital Saturday and quickly moved to take control of the city and the country, effectively ending a seven-month civil war in Africa's third-largest nation.
A beaming Kabila told reporters at rebel headquarters in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi that he was assuming power immediately as the head of state of Zaire, which he called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He said government military commanders had agreed to "answer to me," and he urged remnants of the defeated army to lay down their arms. Many soldiers went further, stripping off their uniforms and melting into the city's back streets and slums.
Mobutu Sese Seko, the strongman who had beggared and brutalized Zaire for 32 years, flew Saturday to Rabat, the Moroccan capital, a day after he fled Kinshasa for his jungle palace in northern Zaire, according to a family member here. He is expected to go into permanent exile in southern France, diplomats said. Switzerland said it is ordering a one-year freeze on any assets held there by Mobutu and his family--assets that could be in the billions of dollars.
Despite warnings that a takeover by Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire would spark a blood bath in this city of 5 million people, Mobutu's once all-powerful regime ended with a whimper, not a bang. The long-feared assault saw surprisingly little bloodshed and no major looting.
Sporadic but sometimes fierce automatic-weapons and machine-gun fire and the sound of distant mortars and grenades echoed in the steamy air through a tense morning and early afternoon. But no serious resistance was mounted, and a Red Cross official reported total deaths "in the tens."
Fall of Kinshasa Marks End of Military Saga
The fall of Kinshasa marked the final chapter in an astonishing military saga. Until recently, Kabila was an obscure former Marxist bush warlord. His rebel army was born in the jungles of eastern Zaire only last September.
But Kabila's troops have routed Mobutu's army and security forces since then, capturing city after city--often without facing any resistance. By the time the rebels reached Kinshasa, they had raced about 1,500 miles across thick rain forests, trackless swamps, rugged mountains and dozens of rivers.
