Zaire President Names New Prime Minister Amid Violent Clashes

President Mobutu Sese Seko on Wednesday picked a veteran politician to be Zaire’s new prime minister, hoping the surprise move would weaken the hard-line opposition.

A presidential decree read on state television said that Bernardin Mungul-Diaka was named prime minister, effective immediately.

Mobutu, fighting to prolong his 26-year-old regime, ignored mounting domestic and Western pressure to reappoint opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi.

The president fired Tshisekedi on Monday, but the opposition’s Sacred Union alliance reconfirmed him 24 hours later as its sole candidate for the premiership.

Meanwhile, violence erupted again as rival groups battled each other in Lubumbashi, a mining city in Shaba province about 1,100 miles southeast of Kinshasa. Witnesses said whole sections of Lubumbashi were in flames. Zaire Radio reported “many deaths.” Widespread looting was reported there and elsewhere.

The State Department in Washington urged Americans in Shaba province to leave at once. Spokesman Richard Boucher said only about 425 Americans were in Zaire.

Mungul-Diaka, 57, was one of the opposition party leaders who endorsed Tshisekedi. Tshisekedi’s supporters were furious with him.

“He was at the meeting and applauded with the rest of us. This is high treason,” said Faustin Birindwa, a close Tshisekedi aide.