LATE OPPOSITION LEADER FINALLY GETS FAREWELL

KINSHASA Tens of thousands of mourners, some of whom camped outside overnight, gathered on Friday to finally say farewell to Etienne Tshisekedi, the Congolese opposition icon whose son was declared president earlier this year.

The stadium ceremony came more than two years after the elder Tshisekedi died abroad at age 84. His rift with then-president Joseph Kabila was so entrenched that his remains were not allowed to return after his death in Belgium of a pulmonary embolism in 2017.

After Kabila gave way to pressure for a new presidential election in January, Tshisekedi’s son Felix was declared the winner. He vowed that his father’s remains would return to Congo.