July 2001 Africa News Headlines

JOHANNESBURG - Former South African president Nelson Mandela is feeling weak after treatment for cancer and is unlikely to meet one of Burundi's top rebel leaders on Thursday as planned, Sapa news agency reported.

Mandela's spokeswoman Zelda la Grange told Sapa late on Wednesday that the 83-year-old was exhausted after receiving the first of his seven week radiotherapy course for prostate cancer and expected him to be out of action for three days.

South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who was expected to join the talks with Mandela, the chief mediator in the Burundi peace process, would continue discussions with CNDD-FDD rebel leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye in Pretoria, his office said.

Burundi President Pierre Buyoya, Gabon President Omar Bongo and Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila were also expected to attend the meeting, the news agency said.

Mandela persuaded many of Burundi's political parties to sign a peace deal in Tanzania last year, but the two main ethnic Hutu rebel groups were not involved and fighting has intensified this year.

The war pits Hutu rebels against a government and army dominated by the ethnic Tutsi minority, and has cost an estimated 200,000 lives since 1993.

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