This week, for the first time in Congo's one-month civil war, the smell of gunsmoke drifted through Kinshasa's boulevards. On August 26th, rebels and forces loyal to President Laurent Kabila were fighting in the city's outskirts, for the airport. But now that Zimbabwe and Angola have openly entered the war on the president's side, reinforcing his shabby army with their well-equipped troops and fighter aircraft, the rebels will not find it easy to take the capital. Mr Kabila himself has returned from his stronghold in the south, predicting imminent victory.
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