TRUCKS full of armed troops trundle around the centre of Kinshasa and rapacious soldiers hang out at the airport, waiting to shake down arriving foreigners. But, despite the steady encroachment of rebel forces from the east, few preparations have been made by Zairean government forces for the defence of the capital.
The government has imposed an overnight curfew and the army has orders to shoot looters during an opposition-led general strike in Kinshasa today.
There is little in the behaviour of either the military or the inhabitants to indicate that the city is under imminent threat of capture by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire.
"You really wouldn't think an armed force was marching on the city," a military adviser attached to one Western embassy commented.
The lack of defensive measures points to the steady disintegration which has affected all elements of the Zairean Armed Forces (FAZ) since the rebels launched their insurgency last year.
"The army is a shambles," the military adviser added. "To forestall the rebel advance, the army would need to go out of the city and launch a pre-emptive strike. But there is no sign of this happening."
With the rebel forces probably less that 100 miles from the capital, it seems that only a last-minute diplomatic solution to the crisis can prevent the violent overthrow of President Mobutu Sese Seko. Talks between the ailing president and the rebel leader Mr Laurent Kabila, scheduled for today, are widely seen as the last chance for peace.
According to reliable estimates the rebels could march into Kinshasa within days. Mr Kabila, who has said "We will talk and fight fight and talk", has boasted that his offensive on the capital is imminent.
There is growing speculation that the Zairean army will capitulate in the event of a rebel onslaught. In eight months of civil war, the FAZ have engaged the insurgents on only a few occasions. For the most part, they have turned on the civilian population, looting and raping, before taking flight.
The only real resistance encountered by the rebels has been mounted by mercenaries fighting alongside the Zairean army.
The rebels are reported to have met "heavy resistance" last week at Kenge, 200 km east of Kinshasa, from Angolan guerillas belonging to Mr Jonas Savimbi's Unita movement. Soldiers of the former Rwandan army, in exile in Zaire for nearly three years, are also said to have fought with the Zairean army.
"The FAZ have no motivation, no loyalty and no training, a Western military official in Kinshasa said. "To defend the capital they would need artillery and engineering equipment. They have some hardware but it hasn't been maintained."
The Zairean army officially stands at 140,000 men but analysts believe 75,000 would be a more realistic figure. Less than half of the 30,000 government troops in Kinshasa are believed to be still in their units the rest have taken off their uniforms and gone to ground.
"The rot in the Zairean army starts at the top," says another Western military expert. "The gene rats and colonels are firstly businessmen and only secondly soldiers. Most of their time is spent on illegal or semi-legitimate activities such as extortion, protection rackets, smuggling and arms dealing. The fat cats in the army have mostly made plans for escaping the city."
Government troops were last paid at the beginning of the year. The average salary for a rank and file soldier is less than £1 per month. The elite Presidential Division (DSP) has been ordered to fight to the death in defence of Kinshasa but military observers say that Mr Mobutu could only rely on the loyalty of half the DSP.
Reuter adds: France said yesterday that rebels had slaughtered refugees after taking the town of Mbandaka, and it called for an international appeal to stop the massacres.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Paris said eyewitnesses in Mbandaka, north-east of Kinshasa on the Zaire River, confirmed the killings. He said some 50,000 Rwandan refugees were in the region but he could not say how many people had been killed.