Pope Francis has appealed for peace, as protests erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when President Kabila’s term in office officially ended.
“I ask you all to pray that dialogue in the Democratic Republic of Congo might unfold with serenity,” the Holy Father said in his remarks following the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer. He asked listeners to pray for the good of the country and that violence would be avoided.
Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered in the capital, Kinshasha, to demand that President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate expired at midnight last night (19 December), reports the BBC.
Demonstrators in the districts of Kalamu, Matete and Lingwala and at Kinshasa University blew whistles, burnt tires and waved red cards saying "Bye, bye Kabila,” Reuters reports.
At least 80 protesters were arrested in the eastern city of Goma, the UN human rights office in the DRC said. They were mostly activists who were simply wearing red shirts, an opposition colour. Police said nine opposition demonstrators were detained.
Opposition activists have accused Kabila of trying to cling to power by letting his term run out without an election to choose the next leader of the DRC, which has not witnessed a peaceful change of power since independence in 1960.
The government and elections officials have blamed logistical and financial problems for the delay in the vote, currently scheduled for April 2018.
Although President Kabila, who has served two five year terms, is barred by the constitution from running for a third term, the constitutional court in May said the president should remain in office until a new leader is elected.
Last-minute talks brokered by the Catholic Church between DRC government representatives and a coalition of opposition groups failed to reach an agreement before President Kabila’s second term ended.
The Catholic Church, one of the few institutions to emerge from decades of turmoil with its credibility intact, will continue in its role as mediator as talks between the two sides are scheduled to start again tomorrow (21 December).
In 2006, Kabila oversaw the first free vote in the DRC in decades, ushering in a period of relative stability and economic growth as mining firms invested billions of dollars. But many observers now fear a return to the brutal civil wars in which an estimated five million people were killed between 1997, when the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was ousted after a 32-year rule, and 2003.
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