Congolese politicians have agreed in principle to a deal under which President Joseph Kabila leaves office by the end of 2017, opposition leaders said on Friday, an unexpected breakthrough after dozens died in anti-government protests this week.
In return, the draft deal says the constitution cannot be changed to let Kabila stand for a third term, a prime minister will be named from the main opposition bloc and opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi will oversee implementation of the deal, Martin Fayulu and Jose Endundo told Reuters.
A government spokesman declined to comment. Kabila’s mandate expired on Tuesday but he has remained in office as a presidential election scheduled for last month was postponed until at least April 2018. He has declined to publicly commit to not changing the constitution.
Meanwhile Security forces in Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 34 people during protests this week against President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his mandate, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.
Congo’s capital Kinshasa and other cities were convulsed by violent demonstrations on Tuesday as Kabila, in power since 2001, reached the end of his second term in office without an election in place to choose his successor.
HRW’s Central Africa director said on Twitter that the deaths, including 19 in the capital Kinshasa and five in the southeastern mining hub of Lubumbashi, happened at protests early on Tuesday and HRW was verifying reports of more deaths.
Congo’s government says 22 people were killed in the clashes, including a police officer, most of them by stray bullets or while looting.
Separately, fighting in the eastern province of North Kivu between Hutu and Nande ethnic militia – violence fed by Congo’s political uncertainty and its security vacuum – killed 17 civilians and a police officer, a local army spokesman said.
“Some were killed by gunshots and others by machetes,” local army spokesman Captain Guillaume Djike told Reuters.
Source: Reuters
