Denis Sassou Nguesso & the 1989 UTA airliner bombing

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”.