Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The DR Congo government said Tuesday it had cut the country’s internet services to avert a “popular uprising” as tensions rise pending the results of fractious presidential elections. The opposition accused authorities of cutting the internet on Monday to thwart activism, while leading Western …
Read More »Voting winds up in volatile DRC’s long-awaited election
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | After two years of delays, the Democratic Republic of Congo voted Sunday in presidential elections that will determine the future of Africa’s notoriously unstable giant. The country’s Catholic Bishop Council said the voting took place in “relative calm”, based on their observations in 78 …
Read More »Ugandan printers reaping big from DRC campaigns
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ongoing campaigns and preparations for the upcoming elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have given a boost to printing and graphics businesses in Kampala. Several traders operating along Nasser Road have secured numerous orders from DRC politicians in the run up to the …
Read More »DR Congo poised for election postponement
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | A candidate in upcoming presidential elections in DR Congo said Thursday that the national election commission had confirmed the long-delayed vote would be postponed again. Theodore Ngoy, one of 21 candidates vying to succeed President Joseph Kabila on Sunday, said the Independent National Election …
Read More »DR Congo election panel ‘may postpone vote for a week’
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Elections in Democratic Republic of Congo — due to take place on Sunday — may be postponed for a week, a senior electoral official has told AFP, after electronic voting machines were destroyed in a suspected arson attack on a warehouse last week. The …
Read More »Two Rwandan soldiers killed by rebels on DR Congo border
Kigali, Rwanda | AFP | At least two Rwandan soldiers in an attack by rebels who had crossed the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Paul Kagame said on Friday. The Rwandan army blamed the December 9 assault in the country’s restive east on Hutu rebel group, the …
Read More »Nearly 80% of Kinshasa vote material destroyed in fire
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Nearly 80 percent of the materials for staging the December 23 election in DR Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, were destroyed when an election warehouse was torched overnight, officials said Thursday. The blaze ripped through a large warehouse in central Kinshasa in the early hours of …
Read More »At least 2 killed during DR Congo opposition rally
Kalemie, DR Congo | AFP | At least two people were killed Wednesday in clashes with police on the sidelines of an opposition rally in eastern DR Congo ahead of this month’s presidential elections, several sources said. The violence erupted in Kalemie, a town on Lake Tanganyika as opposition candidate …
Read More »Anti-govt rapper abducted as DR Congo vote tensions rise
Bukavu, DR Congo | AFP | A rapper critical of President Joseph Kabila was abducted in the eastern DR Congo overnight, his father said Sunday amid rising tensions two weeks ahead of landmark elections. Akim Bufole Corneille, 26, was taken by unidentified kidnappers as he left a party in Bukavu, …
Read More »Six killed as rebels hit army posts near Lake Edward
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | At least three soldiers and three civilians have been killed in a rebel attack on the shores of Lake Edward in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive east, civilian and military sources said Friday. “We have three dead (soldiers) and four wounded,” an …
Read More »