It is a measure of the chaos and confusion that prevails in the Democratic Republic of Congo that it took two days after an assassination attempt on President Laurent Kabila for the government to confirm that he had in fact been killed. The Congo government wants to prevent the country's slide into anarchy; with soldiers from six countries already present in Congo, it does not have much further to go.

Mr. Kabila came to power three and a half years ago, when he overthrew Mobutu Sese Seko, the dictator who had plundered Zaire -- as it was then known -- for decades. The new president took over with the help of the governments of Uganda and Rwanda. Those two governments, dominated by Tutsis, had hoped that Mr. Kabila would crack down on the Hutu militias that operate with impunity on the Congo side of the border. From those safe havens, they were launching attacks against their former adversaries. Mr. Kabila proved more interested in taking up where Mobutu had left off in plundering his nation and took no action against the rebels.

In frustration, the governments of Rwanda and Uganda backed a second army, the Congolese Rally for Democracy. It failed to drive Mr. Kabila from power, but its forces did seize almost half the country. Mr. Kabila survived with the support of governments in Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, who, it is rumored, were granted rights to Congo's vast mineral wealth in return.