DESTINATION REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Between rampaging militias, a hair-trigger army and civil wars raging on its borders, Congo is a mess. Although General Denis Sassou-Nguesso handed over power after elections in 1992, his successor got on the wrong side of the army, and Sassou-Nguesso was back in power five years later after a short but bloody civil war. Since then, various militias with names like the Ninjas and the Cobras have been battling government troops, creating hundreds of thousands of refugees and untold casualties. Fighting in Brazzaville, the capital, has displaced over 200,000 people from their homes - the situation is so bad that many have fled east into the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is engulfed in its own civil war. Fierce fighting between the militias and government troops in the capital and around the country has continued into 1999, resulting in the widespread slaughter of civilians. We strongly urge travellers to monitor the situation carefully and avoid the country until the violence is over.
