Congo braces for violence, unrest as president’s mandate expires

Police and soldiers at the Democratic Republic of the Congo fear the worst and bracing themselves for a series of violent protests and riots as the mandate of President Joseph Kabila, who critics accused of seeking to hold on the power indefinitely, expires on Monday.

Armed police set up checkpoints around the country’s capital Kinshasa, while soldiers in armoured vehicles have been deployed to strategic points in the sprawling city of 12 million.

Kabila’s second term in office was intended to herald the country’s first peace transition of power, but following claims that the president now plans to stay on beyond that date, thanks to a deal with some rivals to delay an election due last month to April 2018, protests are expected to erupt.

Ministers loyal to Kabila, who won elections in 2006 and 2011 but is constitutionally limited to two terms, say logistic and financial problems make it impossible to hold fresh elections within 18 months, but the main opposition bloc has rejected the plan to delay the elections.

It has accused Kabila of postponing elections to cling to power, and wants demonstrations to force him out if talks mediated by the Catholic Church fail to produce a last-ditch compromise.

The last major flare-up over election delays killed at least 50 people, mainly protesters, in September.

Many in Kinshasa are bracing for trouble, stockpiling food and fuel supplies in anticipation of a prolonged crisis. Flights into the DRC have been empty, while family members of the country’s wealthy elite have rushed to safe havens in neighbouring countries, South Africa or Europe.

The stretched United Nations mission has redeployed some troops from peacekeeping operations in the east of the country to reinforce its presence in the capital. The British and US embassies have withdrawn all non-essential staff and warned against all travel.

Observers fear the vast central African country, which has never known a peaceful transfer of power since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960, could plunge into a prolonged period of damaging, and possibly very violent, instability.

Tension has spread to soccer stadiums in a reminder of how fans fuelled protests in 1959 calling for independence from Belgium. The live television broadcast of an international match in October was cut after thousands chanted that Kabila's time was up. The national soccer league has been suspended.

Police have crashed with protesters who argue Kabila should step down at the end of his term in office

From trying to end colonial rule to pressuring Mobutu Sese Seko to accept democratic reforms, Congolese have frequently taken to the street, though seldom successfully.

“Popular protest movements have rarely achieved their desired ends,” the International Crisis Group think-tank warned in a report in October. “More often, they have been manipulated for political gain or been unable to shift political dynamics.”

Talks brokered by the Catholic church between government representatives and a coalition of opposition groups failed to reach agreement on Saturday, but are scheduled to start again next week after bishops visited Rome to consult Pope Francis.

Last month the pope urged political actors in the DRC to “build bridges, not walls”.