Congo tense as Kabila’s term ends with no new elections in sight

MILITIAMEN in eastern Congo attacked a prison yesterday, engaging in a gun battle with security forces amid heightened tensions as President Joseph Kabila’s last term in office ends.

No election has been held to choose a successor to Kabila, whose mandate expired yesterday, and popular anger is growing over what opponents say is an attempt to cling to power in defiance of the constitution.

A presidential election has been postponed until at least April 2018 because of logistical and financial problems and some opposition leaders have agreed Kabila can remain in office until then. The constitutional court has also ruled that Kabila, leader since his father was assassinated in 2001, can stay on.

But Democratic Republic of Congo’s main opposition bloc rejects the deal as a ploy.

The capital Kinshasa, an opposition stronghold of 12 million people, was quiet yesterday, with many residents staying at home and shops and businesses shuttered. Military and police patrolled the streets with riot trucks.

The government has outlawed protests there, raising fears of repression and violence in a nation that has been plagued by war and instability for two decades since the fall of kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko.

Congo has not seen a peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1960. — Reuters