Tensions mount in DR Congo as end of Kabila’s term nears

KINSHASA: Security forces patrolled the streets of Kinshasa on Sunday after the suspension of last- ditch talks seeking a peaceful end to a crisis sparked by the end of Congolese President Joseph Kabila’s mandate.

Negotiations to agree on a way forward after December 20, when Kabila’s second term finishes, were halted on Saturday with no significant progress made.

Fears of fresh political violence in mineral-rich but unstable Democratic Republic of Congo were running high, with no elections planned and Kabila showing no inclination to step down.

Talks are due to resume on Wednesday when Catholic bishops acting as mediators return from a long-planned trip to Rome – a day after Kabila’s term ends.

AFP reporters saw security forces posted in large numbers in opposition strongholds and other flashpoints around Kinshasa, the teeming capital of 10 million.

“We’re waiting to see what happens. The politicians are okay, it’s us, the little people, who suffer,” a supervisor at a cleaning company told AFP.

“Things are not normal. We are very worried,” said 25-year- old Atine Butela, a hair salon owner.

At the dilapidated Tata-Raphael stadium, which hosted the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” between Mohammed Ali and George Foreman, the usual crowd of runners, football players and boxers, was noticeably small.

“Normally, there are 700 or 800 people. Today there must be fewer than 250,” visitor Michel Kabamba said outside.

“Soldiers are criss- crossing the city, which creates a sense of fear... Some people have already made plans, foreigners have left ...”

In the run-up to Christmas, however, churches were as busy as ever in a country where Christians makeup80percentofthepopulation. Kabila, constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, has indicated he wants to stay in power until a successor is chosen, but some opposition figures want him to hand over to a transitional leadership while awaiting the vote.

The 45-year- old has been in power since his father Laurent Kabila was assassinated in 2001. He was elected in 2006, and again in 2011, in polls decried as rigged by the opposition.

Last week’s talks sponsored by the Congolese bishops’ conference ( CENCO) brought together the ruling party and fringe opposition groups, allied against a mainstream opposition coalition led by the 84-year- old Etienne Tshisekedi.

But despite three days of mediation they broke up on Saturday, with no progress made on the main issues that divide the two sides.

Kabila’s opponents accuse him of delaying the vote in the hope of tweaking the constitution to extend his family’s hold over a nation that is almost the size of western Europe.

Tshisekedi’s opposition grouping had threatened to bring people into the streets from Monday if the talks failed.

Leaflets urging people to retake Kinshasa “street by street, district by district until we retake the whole of the DRC”, have begun to circulate in the capital. — AFP