Sub-Saharan Africa

Four months before the end of the mandate of President Joseph Kabila, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is on the edge of a deep political crisis. The government has created multiple artificial delays in the electoral process, making it impossible to respect the constitution and hold fair and transparent elections before the end of the year. Furthermore, the Constitutional Court has issued a controversial interpretation of the constitution that authorizes President Kabila to remain in power until his successor is elected.

The Center on International Cooperation is deeply concerned by the expulsion of Jason Stearns from the Democratic Republic of Congo on April 7, 2016.

The official reason for the expulsion by the Congolese authorities was the “undesirability” of Mr. Stearns, the director of CIC’s Congo Research Group (CRG). They also referred to the recent report by CRG on the massacres around Beni.

Members of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s army have been involved in attacks on civilians in the country’s northeast that have left more than 500 people dead since 2014, the Congo Research Group said.

Congo’s government and the United Nations previously blamed the assaults on the Allied Democratic Forces, an insurgent group originally based in Uganda that has operated along Congo’s border since the late 1990’s.