• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home Africa

Congo says ready to register voters in conflict-ravaged Kasai

27 July 2017, 8:06 PM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
Kasai poses Congo's biggest security challenge and is the scene of a growing humanitarian disaster in a country Picture:REUTERS

Kasai poses Congo's biggest security challenge and is the scene of a growing humanitarian disaster in a country Picture:REUTERS

Kasai poses Congo's biggest security challenge and is the scene of a growing humanitarian disaster in a country Picture:REUTERS

The head of Congo’s election commission said on Thursday that better security in the conflict-ravaged Kasai region had enabled preparations for a delayed election to replace President Joseph Kabila, but it still may not happen before a year-end deadline.

Kasai poses Congo’s biggest security challenge and is the scene of a growing humanitarian disaster in a country where militia violence since Kabila refused to step down in December has raised fears of a slip back into civil war.

But the central region appears to be settling down a little, with fewer reports of unrest, especially in the main towns.

“We’ve seen that security has returned,” election commission head Corneille Nangaa said in an interview in the capital of Kasai-Central province, Kananga, a town of dirt roads and iron-roofed buildings surrounded by thick bush and palm trees.

“The question of enrolling voters is nearly behind us,” he said while on the tour of the region, where, however, a Reuters reporter saw many enrolment centres that had been burned to ashes because of the conflict.

Earlier this month, Nangaa said that the vote would probably not be possible this year due to delays registering voters, particularly in Kasai.

The insurrection there by the Kamuina Nsapu militia, which demands the withdrawal of Congolese forces from the area, has driven 1.4 million people from their homes and killed more than 3,000 since August last year.

Despite the security improvements, Nangaa said he could not guarantee the vote would take place this year, as required by a deal with Congo’s opposition that allowed Kabila to stay in power beyond the expiry of his mandate last December.

With so many missed deadlines and an apparent lack of political will for the election to go ahead anytime soon, many Congolese doubt it will happen this year.

A Reuters journalist was able to accompany Nangaa on the nearly 200-km (125-mile) road trip from Mbuji-Mayi, in neighbouring Kasai-Oriental province, to Kananga, a journey that may have been too dangerous some months ago.

Nangaa said that the commission had registered 37 million of an expected 42-45 million voters nationwide since last July but did not provide a date for when enrolment would begin in the parts of Kasai hit hardest by the violence, nor when the commission would announce the election date.

– By REUTERS

Share article
Tags: DR CongoJoseph kabilaElectionKasai regionKanangaVoters register
Previous Post

Mugabe could soon announce preferred successor

Next Post

Kenyan women demand guaranteed security

Related Posts

[file photo]Athletes exercise in the early morning in the sports ground of the University of Eldoret in western Kenya, March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola/File Photo

Kenyan Lempus gets five-year ban for doping violation

26 January 2023, 2:06 PM
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on during a meeting with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at the State Department in Washington, US, January 18, 2023.

US blocks entry to those ‘undermining’ Nigerian democracy

26 January 2023, 6:39 AM
Tanzanian opposition leader Tindu Lissu

Tanzanian opposition leader returns home after two years in exile

25 January 2023, 2:34 PM
Eswatini human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko

International outrage over Eswatini human rights lawyer’s brutal murder

25 January 2023, 11:43 AM
FILE PHOTO: Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) hold position following renewed fighting in Kilimanyoka, outside Goma in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo June 9, 2022.

Rwanda shoots at Congolese military jet over alleged airspace violation

25 January 2023, 10:46 AM
FILE PHOTO: Members of Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), part of the troops to the East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF) soldiers and Congolese M23 rebels secure 3 antennes location in Kibumba, near Goma

Rwanda says Congo fighter jet violated its airspace

24 January 2023, 9:52 PM
Next Post
Women who live in Kenya's informal settlements are afraid. Picture:SABC

Kenyan women demand guaranteed security

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • Remedial programme reinstated to fight Hyacinth plants at Hartbeespoort Dam
  • Northern Cape’s Kakamas to be exempted from blackouts
  • Zuma joins AmaZulu King in commemorating the Battle of Isandlwana
  • Scorcher predicted in Northern Cape for two weeks
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • VIDEO | St Benedict College’s Matric learner gets 11 distinctions
  • Limpopo matriculant from child-headed household attains diploma pass
  • Female circumcision practice thriving in Eastern Cape
  • Babes Wodumo breaks her silence at Mampintsha’s funeral
  • AG’s report points to billions of irregular expenditure in City of Tshwane
  • Diepsloot residents block N14 highway
  • LIVE: City of Joburg Council elects new mayor
  • Phalatse refuses to comment on DA’s sabotage allegations
  • Public Protector’s office finalising preliminary Phala Phala report

LATEST

Al Jama-ah's, Thapelo Amad, new City of Johannesburg mayor.
  • Politics

VIDEO | Thapelo Amad elected new Executive Mayor of Joburg


[File Image] : A worker harvests grapes
  • South Africa

Table grape farmers request exemption from rolling blackouts


The City of Joburg Council to elect a new Mayor after the ousting of Dr Mpho Phalatse in a no-confidence vote.
  • Politics

UPDATE: Thapelo Amad elected as new Mayor of Joburg


The union members will picket outside Makro stores across the country for ten days.
  • Business

SACCAWU workers down tools at Makro stores nationwide


People work at the site after the announcement of the discovery of 4 300-year-old sealed tombs in Egypt's Saqqara necropolis, in Giza, Egypt, January 26, 2023.
  • Sci-tech

Archaeologist hails possibly ‘oldest’ mummy yet found in Egypt


[File Image] : Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp before the match
  • Sport

Disciplined defence key to beating Brighton: Jurgen Klopp


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2022

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous Mugabe could soon announce preferred successor
Next Kenyan women demand guaranteed security