This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Congolese television viewers watched stunned on Monday as the presenter of a morning talkshow was cut off mid-sentence by armed intruders who stormed the studio and appeared to be staging a coup.

About 70 assailants wielding machetes and automatic weapons attacked the state broadcaster, airport and main military base in Kinshasa, the sprawling capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), before being repelled by the army, officials and witnesses said.

The surprise assault at the heart of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest and unwieldiest state highlighted the fragility of President Joseph Kabila's central government. The assailants declared themselves loyal to a Christian evangelical prophet.

Lambert Mende, a government spokesman, said about 40 people were killed in the exchange of fire on Monday morning, including 16 at the military base, 16 at the airport and eight at the TV station.

Six other people were captured, he added.

"These are terrorists, you can't call them anything else," Mende told the Associated Press.

The first most residents knew of the attack was during a programme on Radio Television Nationale Congolaise, the state broadcaster. The hosts of Le Panier, or The Breadbasket, talkshow were speaking when when attackers with knives burst in. Footage of the incident shows a young male and young female presenter sitting at a table with alarmed facial expressions, while a man in a blue T-shirt stands behind them.

Before transmission was shut down, two gunmen appeared on camera to deliver a political message against Kabila. "Gideon Mukungubila has come to free you from the slavery of the Rwandan," it said. A voice off camera could be heard to say in the Lingala language: "Kabila, it's finished for him from today. He will be mocked."

Gideon is the nickname used for Paul Joseph Mukungubila by his followers. Calling himself "The prophet of the Eternal", he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency against Kabila in 2006 and has built up a following with broadcasts on local TV and radio.

Mukungubila has been an outspoken critic of a peace deal signed this month with the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo,accusing Kabila's government of bowing to Tutsi interests and pressure from neighbouring Rwanda.

Kabila, derided by his opponents as being "Rwandan", came to power in 2001 after the assassination of his father, warlord Laurent Kabila, who had seized power in a coup with Rwandan backing.

Several journalists were reportedly held hostage at the state TV station. An employee who was inside the building at the time described scenes of confusion and terror.

"There were around 30 armed men who burst into the headquarters of the television station," the employee, who did not wish to be named, told AP. "They started firing, and we hid."

Between 7am and 8am, gunmen also attacked the international airport and the military camp in the capital housing the country's senior army leaders, officials said. An army colonel was killed.

In an emergency message, the US embassy said it had received reports of fighting throughout Kinshasa, as well as indications that numerous police and military checkpoints had been erected.

"The embassy urged all US citizens to stay in place and not travel around the city until further notice," it said.

Hours later the Congolese army also clashed with Mukungubila's followers in the eastern mining city of Lubumbashi. Witnesses said the clashes erupted after government troops attacked Mukungubila's church in the centre of Lubumbashi in the copper-rich Katanga province.

With a population of nearly 66 million, Congo spans a territory as large as western Europe. Millions of people have died in conflict over the past two decades. It has twice gone to war with its smaller neighbour to the east, Rwanda, which was accused of backing the M23 insurgents.

Kinshasa, in the west, witnessed an apparent coup bid in 2003, blamed by police on troops loyal to ousted dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. A second coup bid attributed to renegade forces in the presidential guard took place in June 2004, but was also swiftly put down.

Elections in 2011 gave Kabila a second term, but the vote was widely criticised as flawed.