In fact, President Denis Sassou Nguesso
had never had plans to leave power and even in 1992, he conceded defeat to
Pascal Lissouba simply because, he was under pressure from late President
Francois Mitterrand, following his alleged complicity
with Muammar Gaddafi in the bombing
of French UTA airliner over the Tenere desert in Niger in
1989. I was told by a person in Brazzaville whom I promised never to release
his identity. The same source also told me that, in the Libya versus Chad war
over the control of the northern Chadian territory of band Aouzou, Denis Sassou Nguesso
was on the side of Libya. He went on: “since Colonel Gaddafi was a friend to
Colonel Denis Sassou Nguesso, Libya’s leader, decided to send Libyan bomb
experts to Brazzaville to plant a bomb in a UTA flight that was to fly to Paris
via Ndjamena, the capital of Chad. And in Ndjamena, President Hissene Habre had
to board that plane because, he was going to Paris, France”. My informant went
on: “The Libyan plan was that, the plane will take off and explode out of
Chadian territory, killing in the process the Chadian leader who was viscerally
opposed to Libyan expansionism and who had inflicted heavy defeats on Libyan
forces with the aid of French legionnaires”.
He went on: “In Brazzaville, Denis
Sassou Nguesso did inform three Congolese of the Libyan plan: Senator Oba
Apounou, General Norbert Dabira and Auxence Ickonga, who was the third African
director of Air Afrique”. He continued: “the mutual Gaddafi –Sassou
Nguesso secret plan to kill Hissene Habre failed because, late Auxence
Ickonga, who was a friend to late President Mobutu, decided to inform the
second. And Mobutu in turn informed his friend
Hissene Habre, asking him not board the UTA flight from Brazzaville to Paris
via Ndjamena".
He concluded: "sadly On
board that, same flight, several Congolese lost their lives amongst them, the
daughter of trade-unionist, Bokamba Yagouma. It also explained the reason why,
Bokamba had a vitriolic anti Denis Sassou Nguesso approach in the 90s.
When the French discovered the implication of Denis Sassou Nguesso, their
protégé in the UTA crash, they decided not support Pascal Lissouba. It was
Paris own way to punish their protégé”. Another informant told me: “when Denis Sassou
Nguesso discovered that, it was Auxence Ickonga, who leaked the secret to
Mobutu, Auxence was allegedly poisoned by Congo’s president using a woman whose
name can’t be mentioned here on”.
