Security forces deployed on Monday on the streets of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) capital to quell demonstrators who burned tires to protest a recent government announcement delaying upcoming elections nationwide.
Residents and students set tyres ablaze in several poor, crowded neighbourhoods near Kinshasa’s airport as police and soldiers pushed them back, residents said. Sporadic gunshots were also heard in other parts of the capital and troops could be seen racing by large trucks.
”The people are saying we need elections,” said area resident Adrian Bimbata, contacted by telephone. ”They don’t want elections to be delayed, and the economy is bad and every day our money becomes more worthless. The people are protesting these things.”
Bimbata said he and his neighbours are afraid to leave their houses with the threat of violence looming.
On Friday, Apolinaire Malumalu, chief of the vast country’s independent electoral commission, said landmark nationwide elections scheduled for June may be delayed by several months until October or November.
The delay is in line with a peace accord signed by the nation’s former warring factions in 2002, as well as the Constitution, which grants the government authority to delay the elections by six months twice.
In a New Year’s Eve address, President Joseph Kabila said he is determined to hold the vote this year.
The vast Central African country’s five-year war officially ended in 2002, but persistent ethnic fighting and revolts have continued in the east, and relations with neighbouring Rwanda — which has twice intervened in the DRC — have remained volatile. — Sapa-AP