The campaign for the parliamentary elections, the presidential and provincial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who should appoint the successor of president Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, has started in the worst of ways. After two years of waiting and tension, of three activists of the outgoing president, Joseph Kabila, have been killed in the Kasai (centre of the country) while they were campaigning for a party candidate in the presidential elections to be held on the 23rd of December, said Wednesday their family and their political party. The three activists of PPRD have been beheaded, according to these sources.
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They were wearing “T-shirt bearing the image” of the candidate in the presidential election, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, with the logo of the party, has assured the son of one of them to a correspondent of the AFP. The bodies have not been found, according to this same source: “When we received information, we went in the village of Kabeya Lumbu get the bodies but without success. The villagers confirmed to us that they have been killed.” “It is dramatic. The three activists were going to recruit witnesses for our party,” said Richard Ilunga Ntumba, the candidate of the Party of the people for democracy and social progress (PPRD). The facts have taken place in the territory of Dibaya, in the Kasai province of central.
another source reported the death of two agents of the PPRD in this territory, without confirming the death of a third person, or the mode of operation by beheading. “This was about two weeks that they had been kidnapped. We knew a few days after they had been killed”, according to this source.
“Courtesy” and “debate of ideas”
the announcement of the death of the three activists pro-Kabila comes on the eve of the opening of the official campaign on Thursday for the three polls presidential, legislative and provincial statutory on the 23rd of December. The member of the PPRD has accused militia members who refuse to join the peace process to be the cause” of their “death”.
a Few hours earlier, the chairman of the electoral commission, Corneille Nangaa, had appealed to the measurement. He decided that “the campaign is not a moment of violence” and called on the 21 candidates (competing for the succession of Joseph Kabila, editor’s NOTE) to the “courtesy” and the “debate of ideas”. For their part, the United States has called the elections “credible” and peaceful. “With the start of the campaign on the 23rd of November, we encourage all stakeholders to remain committed to the process, to conduct their activities peacefully and to commit to respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and democratic values”, said the spokesperson of the State department Heater Nauert.
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The diamond-rich region of Kasai had already fallen in the violence between September 2016 and mid-2017, after the death of a customary chief who was killed in an assault by security forces in August 2016. The clashes between the security forces and the militias of Kamuina Nsapu have made more than 3 000 dead and one million displaced, according to the united Nations. Two experts from the UN were killed on 12 march 2017 to Bukonde in the same territory of Dibaya.
