RDC: Conference de Presse du President du Rassemblement (05.09.2017)

RDC: Communique du Rassamblement (01.09.2017)

RDC: CENI – “Pour l’Evaluation du Processus Electoral Kanaga, 31 Aout 2017 – Communique Final” (31.08.2017)

Rumors: President Kabila plans to hold Presidential Elections in 2019 or 2020!

President Joseph Kabila Kabange who has been president since 21st January 2001. Kabila has been elected twice and last in December 2011, also his term ended in November 2016. The Democratic Republic of Congo government has now been 252 days since the last date of the term. There was supposed to be an election, but that never happen.

President Kabila has been registered twice, the United Kingdom and other states has supported aid and donor funds to the Commission Electorale Nationale Independante (CENI) who has also postponed the elections. Kabila has used any sort of problem and militias for his own gain. Even the rebels who are using force to export minerals for weapons, these are bloody cobalt and rare earth minerals.

The Kabila government are afraid of stepping down because of the businesses it owns. The family who are entailed in all sorts of schemes and has made a vast fortune. Kabila doesn’t want it to be taken away and also lose it all. So many other Presidents who has stepped down has lost their fortunes and businesses as the power will go away.

There are reports that Kabila the CENI planning the new date for the election in April 2019, the other estimates are already put into April 2020. The Congolese Authorities are really planning to let the Kabila government be on at least be 833 days of overtime, if the polls are on 1st April 2019. But if it is on the 1st April 2020, the 1199 days overtime are really extreme.

The President is clearly long over his mandate, just like he waited from 2001 to 2006, before he was elected into his first term. So it is not like the President or CENI really cares about the citizens or their rights to be represented by their elected official. Right now, they are hostages to the authorities being in the hands of Kabila. Without an election or polls, without any succession, without honoring the CENCO Agreement of 31st December 2016. The CENCO agreement that states the DRC government was supposed to organize an election during the 2017. An install a new government before 31st December 2017.

The Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et la Democratie (PPRD), the ruling party of the President, are clearly not interested holding the election in 2017, as the President hasn’t signed the CENCO agreement. Therefore, the President will use anyway possible to postpone the election. Kabila wil not hold the election this year. The rumors of either 2019 or 2020 seems likely. It will be like the President get two free terms without elections, as it was with “first” term from 2001 to 2006. Instead, he got elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2011. So the term ended on 20th December 2016.

Still, President Kabila are not elected anymore, he is using the military and the government to his personal gain, instead of being a representative of the people. He is sole president, who should not have the office and has no rights to it. The Congolese people deserves better and also he has no rights to stay over 1199 days without being elected. Peace.

RDC: CENI – Communique de Presse (24.08.2017)

RDC: CASC – “A l’intention de l’opinion nationale et internationale” (24.08.2017)

RDC – Communique du Rassemblement (21.08.2017)

RDC: Manifeste du Citoyen Congolais (18.08.2017)

RDC: Province du Kwilu – “Objet: Accuse de Reception” (16.08.2017)

WFP Begins Food Distributions for Thousands Displaced by Conflict in Kasai Region of DRC (16.08.2017)

ABUJA, Nigeria, August 16, 2017 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its partner World Vision have launched an emergency operation to provide food assistance to 42,000 food insecure people in the Kasai and Kasai Central provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Food assistance will be provided to people who have fled their villages due to conflict in the region.
Where safe access is possible, WFP plans to assist 25,000 displaced persons in Kasai Central and 17,000 people in the Kasai province in the coming days. However, WFP urgently requires US$17.3 million to support scale up of its operations to assist 250,000 vulnerable persons in Kasai and Kasai Central provinces from September to December 2017.

Food distributions have started in the town of Tshilumba with further distributions scheduled this month. As part of this effort and where safe access is possible, WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) continue to identify the most vulnerable displaced people in areas identified with high levels of food insecurity, as determined in a recent food security study.

The results of this recent food security assessment showed that in the last year, the number of people in need of urgent humanitarian food assistance in the DRC rose by 1.8 million, from 5.9 million to 7.7 million. In conflict-ridden areas, more than 1.5 million people are facing “emergency” levels of food insecurity, leaving many with no option but to sell everything they have while skipping or reducing their meals.

In addition to food distributions, WFP is leading the Logistics Cluster, which provides technical and logistical support to humanitarian organizations and has been operational in the Kasai region since June. Mobile warehouses have been built to store food and non-food items, while several trucks have been sent to Kasai and Kasai Central to transport food and supplies.

In order to meet the huge needs of the displaced people in hard-to-reach areas, the WFP-led United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) has expanded its support since June, positioning an aircraft in Kananga in Kasai Central on a permanent basis and starting three weekly flights to Tshikapa, Kasai. As a result, those most in need are more accessible to humanitarian organizations.

“We launched this emergency response as soon as funds became available,” said Claude Jibidar, WFP Representative and Country Director in DRC. “We targeted the most vulnerable among the vulnerable, and our access to these displaced people also depend on security conditions. However, with nearly one and a half million displaced people in the Kasai region, additional donor support is essential for WFP to scale up our operations and reach more vulnerable displaced people.”

Scores of people have fled their villages due to the conflict that broke out in the Kasai region in August 2016. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there are some 1.4 million internally displaced people across the Kasai provinces. In addition, more than 31,000 people have fled the region into neighboring Angola. With up to 3.8 million people displaced in total, the DRC is home to the largest population of internally displaced people in Africa.

The sharp deterioration in people’s food security is mainly attributable to displacement caused by an upsurge in conflict and pest infestation in crops across the country. WFP continues to coordinate with FAO and other partners to serve the most vulnerable people in the Kasai region, as well as in other parts of the country.