Two people died and police clashed with the main opposition candidate and his entourage on Saturday, the final day of campaigning before today’s elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).
Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi was engaged in a standoff with police at Kinshasa airport for several hours after they blockaded his red SUV after he tried to defy a ban on political rallies.
The 78-year-old candidate of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress was confronted by national police chief General Charles Bisengimana and 300 of his officers.
Throngs of Tshisekedi supporters brandishing palm fronds had gathered along the airport road to greet the veteran politician with a welcome his party said would be “like Jesus entering Jerusalem.”
However, as he tried to leave the airport for the capital’s biggest stadium, a large armored truck and a group of police pickups blocked his path.
He remained hemmed in for more than seven hours before police pushed members of his 20-car entourage into their cars with shoves and baton blows and forced the motorcade to drive off.
Kinshasa police had called off the final day of campaign rallies after a man was killed after being struck in the head by a rock in campaign-related unrest earlier in the day.
Later on Saturday, a statement from Congolese Interior Minister Adolphe Lumanu said two people had died.
Tshisekedi’s return to the capital had “unfortunately given rise to some bloody incidents,” which had left two dead and several injured, Lumanu said.
However, apart from “a few incidents,” the election campaign had passed off peacefully across the country.
The decision to suspend the final campaign meetings had been taken to try to maintain calm, he said.
Kinshasa Governor Andre Kimbuta, an ally of Congolese President Joseph Kabila, also said the ban was for security reasons, accusing Tshisekedi supporters of carrying stones, machetes, knives and petrol bombs.
Both Tshisekedi’s campaign and Kabila’s had planned to hold their final rallies at the city’s main stadium, raising fears of clashes ahead of today’s presidential and parliamentary polls.
Although the day begun with a festive atmosphere, it quickly unraveled into violence.
Near the stadium, as packed trucks spilled Tshisekedi supporters into the street, police fired teargas to disperse them, but left nearby Kabila supporters alone.
Kabila, who was born on the other side of the country, in the eastern province of Sud-Kivu, is not popular in the capital and would likely have had the smaller rally on Saturday.
The president speaks little Lingala, the main local language, and grew up in exile in Tanzania with his rebel father, Laurent — from whom he inherited power in 2001 after his assassination.
However, Kabila, 40, enjoys more popularity in other parts of the country and — as an incumbent running against 10 opposition candidates in a single-round election — is tipped as the favorite.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in