Jan 5, 2009

GOMA, DR Congo (AFP) — One of Congo's main rebel military chiefs denied that Laurent Nkunda, head of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), had been toppled by a dissident group.

A group of CNDP officers had told the BBC Monday that they had dismissed Nkunda for "poor leadership" adding that the decision had been taken Sunday during a meeting of the rebels' military command.

But Colonel Makinga Sultani, number two in the military leadership, told AFP: "Laurent Nkunda is still chairman of the CNDP. There has not been any leadership change in the movement, the power in CNDP still rests with Nkunda," who has headed the Tutsi rebel movement since it was set up in 2006.

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