“Congolese bunkers food for uncertain choices”
“Congo-Kinshasa has never experienced a peaceful transition and the upcoming presidential election looks to be no exception. Several people have been killed in the escalating violence and the increased tensions threaten to usher in a new bloody conflict.”
“Africa’s second largest country, has been rocked by two large-scale wars for the past 22 years. Millions of lives have been wasted and low-intensity conflict is smoldering in several places.”
“President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled dr Congo since 2001, would actually have resigned two years ago but has stayed in power by means of a gap in the constitution. The national electoral committee has, in turn, claimed logistical difficulties.”
“But after that the choice of replacement has been postponed in installments, it has become time to elect a new president on Sunday. Many hope for the first peaceful transition of power since independence in 1960 – although the evidence suggests the opposite.”
“– The recent period has been marked by escalating violence, including the security service, the police and the military are used to a greater extent in order to crack down on activists and dissidents, ” says Maria Eriksson Baaz, a professor of political science at Uppsala university.”
“Several people have been killed and dozens have been injured in connection with the opposition rallies in the last week, a development that has been criticised by the UN människorättschef Michelle Bachelet. Among other things, shot a teen to death since the police fired shots at the presidential candidate Felix Tshisekedis rally in Mbuji-Mayi in the Kasai region in the Thursday, writes the AFP news agency.”
“the Same day, destroyed thousands of rösträkningsmaskiner in a fire at the electoral commission premises in the capital, Kinshasa.”
“– the Question is what happens after the election, regardless of the outcome, it is fraught with risks, ” says Baaz.”
“There are 21 candidates that make up the defense. Kabila himself is not up – but has hand-picked the former minister of the interior Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, which is coated with EU sanctions after their tough measures against the opposition, as the ruling alliance’s candidate.”
“– it Will be Kabila’s candidate, it is becoming more popular protests, if any of the other wins so the question is whether Kabila and his government will accept it.”
“According to Baaz, the president has never been so unpopular as it is now. New conflicts have flared up and the economy in deep crisis, with pervasive poverty and corruption. Criticism is also growing in the eastern parts of the country, where ex-military in the past has had a relatively significant support in its fight against rebel groups.”
“Mary Bard, an expert on Pingstmissionens development cooperation (PMU), has just come home from a visit to the violence-torn South kivu province in the east, where she experienced how the situation has worsened.”
” We are seeing an increase of armed groups in the area. In the population there is an enormous amount of suffering and many children are malnourished, ” she says.”
“– no matter what will happen in the election, then I think we can expect a very violent situation. Some describe how the bunkers food because they do not know if they will be able to go out on the streets.”
“the democratic republic of Congo became independent from Belgium in 1960. The availability of natural resources such as gold, uranium, copper and cobalt could have made the country one of the world’s richest, but corrupting the leaders and the brutal militias have instead made it one of the world’s poorest.”
“The so-called Kongokrigen, in the realm of ethnic conflict in the eastern part of the country, has contributed much suffering. The war of 1998-2003 is regarded by many as the deadliest conflict since the second world war and although the war formally ended, are still under local violence in the east.”
“at Least 3.3 million people are estimated to have died in the war since 1998. Several neighbouring states have been involved. The UN accused in 2010 of all of the foreign forces for serious war crimes. The hardest criticism has been directed against the troops from Rwanda and Uganda.”
“in recent years, tensions further increased in several other directions and, at the end of the year 2017u002F2018 were 4 million displaced within the country. The situation is particularly serious in the Kasai region, but new battles are also going on in North and South kivu in the east, where the resistance against president Joseph Kabila increased.”
“Source: the institute of Foreign affairs, the Swedish national encyclopaedia,”