United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presidential election rivals Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba to meet and work together to end fighting between their supporters, the UN said on Tuesday.
Rocket and small-arms fire shook the capital, Kinshasa, for a third day after Sunday’s announcement that the July 30 election in the DRC was inconclusive and that Kabila, the president, would face a runoff against Bemba, one of the central African nation’s vice presidents.
A group of Kabila’s Presidential Guards clashed with soldiers loyal to Bemba at the Vice-President’s Kinshasa compound on Monday as UN envoy William Lacy Swing and other diplomats conferred with Bemba inside.
More peacekeepers were rushed to Kinshasa as UN officials said they had brokered a truce to end the fighting, which killed at least five people. Each side blamed the other for starting the clashes.
Annan telephoned both men to urge them to ”meet immediately to resolve the situation in a peaceful manner,” UN chief spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
The UN Security Council reinforced Annan’s plea by issuing a statement calling on Kabila and Bemba to meet ”as soon as possible to defuse the current political tension.”
A run-off election has been scheduled for October 29 and the 15-nation council hoped the voting would take place on time and under secure conditions, Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng of Ghana, the council president for August, told reporters.
Last month’s elections were the first free elections in the DRC in more than four decades. They were also the largest and costliest elections in which the UN has assisted.
According to the provisional results, Kabila won 45% of the vote, while Bemba won 20%. – Reuters