Congo on edge as opposition leader calls for Kabila to step down
CONGO - Moise Katumbi, the most popular politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo according to recent polls, has made a dramatic intervention in the ongoing crisis in the vast central African state, called on the president, Joseph Kabila, to stand down within 24 hours to avoid chaos and bloodshed.
The DRC is bracing for violent protests and riots when the mandate of Kabila, whom critics accuse of seeking to hold on to power indefinitely, expired yesterday. Opposition officials have spoken of a “trial of strength on the streets” in coming days. Hundreds of armed police have set up checkpoints around Kinshasa, the capital, while soldiers in armored vehicles have been deployed to strategic points in the sprawling city of 12 million. Observers fear the chronically poor and unstable state, which has never known a peaceful transfer of power since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960, could plunge into a prolonged period of damaging, and possibly very violent, instability. Katumbi, the former governor of the southern province of Katanga, is seen as the only serious opposition candidate for the presidency. He said Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, should step down before becoming an illegitimate ruler.
“I am advising him it is still possible to leave a legacy. It is very important … that he will no longer be a legitimate president,” Katumbi told the Guardian in a telephone interview last weekend. The crisis has been building for several months. Both negotiations and protests have intensified as the end of Kabila’s mandate approaches.
(Theguardian.com)