With a week-old insurrection approaching the capital, the government of Congo opened a recruitment drive Saturday, aimed at enlisting thousands of youths into the country's badly stretched armed forces.
In an effort to turn out volunteers, Congolese government recruiters went to neighborhoods urging youths from ages 12 to 20 to respond to President Laurent Kabila's call to defend the country against what he has characterized as an effort by neighboring Rwanda to occupy the Congo.In the first day of the operation, witnesses said, more than 5,000 youths gathered in the city's Stadium of Martyrs to enlist in the country's beleaguered army.
Even as the recruitment drive got under way, security forces reportedly stepped up efforts to round up Congolese of Rwandan Tutsi descent, the so-called Banyamulenge. Many of them in the city have gone into hiding since the beginning of the anti-government rebellion last weekend.
While the drive against Tutsi residents in Kinshasa accelerated, Kabila met with fellow African heads of state in an emergency regional summit meeting in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in an effort to end the crisis.