Mass arrests in DRC following anti-Kabila protests

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By CGTN Africa

Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have arrested more than 100 people following protests demanding that President Joseph Kabila resign from presidency by the end of the year, rights group Amnesty International noted.

A series of protests that had been scheduled to take place across the country on Monday, called by pro-democracy group Lucha, and backed by several leading opposition politicians, were snuffed out by heavy police deployments.

Security authorities in the country banned demonstrations in September last year, citing security fears.

President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila (L) during a meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma at Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Pretoria on June 25, 2017. / AFP Photo

President Kabila’s mandate was to end in December last year, but failure to hold elections have meant he stayed in power.

The country’s electoral authorities said they could not be able to hold the vote due to logistical challenges.

That decision was followed by anti-Kabila protests and cases of violence late last year, now spilling into 2017.

Anti-President Kabila protesters shout slogans and wave placards as they demonstrate near the entrance to Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Pretoria on June 24, 2017. /AFP Photo

Opposition figures condemned the move not to hold elections, saying that was Kabila’s plot to cling onto power beyond his constitutionally mandated term.

Last month, the electoral commission said it had gained progress in the registration of voters, especially in the troubled Kasai region, but that holding an election this year might not be possible.

That would violate a deal struck with the opposition in December that allowed Kabila, whose father Laurent preceded him as president, to stay in office past the end of his second and final constitutional mandate.