In Congo, 8 Killed and Altar Boys Arrested Amid Crackdown on Protests

[Borealis]

[URL="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/31/world/africa/congo-protest-joseph-kabila.html?rref=world"]source[/URL]

[QUOTE]NAIROBI, Kenya — At least eight people were killed and a dozen altar boys arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after security forces cracked down on planned church protests against President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to leave office before coming elections.

Seven people were killed in Kinshasa, the capital, and one in Kananga, a city in the central part of the country, according to Florence Marchal, the spokeswoman for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congolese security forces set up checkpoints across Kinshasa, and the government issued an order to shut down text messaging and internet services indefinitely across the country for what it called “reasons of state security.”

Kinshasa, a city of 10 million people, had been militarized by the heavy presence of soldiers and the police, who sought to disrupt planned demonstrations, witnesses said.

Catholic churches, and some Protestant counterparts, had called for a peaceful march to protest a delay in elections and Mr. Kabila’s apparent intent to stay in office even though his second and final term in office, set by the Congolese Constitution, expired last year.[/QUOTE]

[Col. Buggernuts]

The DRC just can't catch a break, it seems.

[RockmanYoshi]

[QUOTE=Sgt Doom;53022486]The DRC just can't catch a break, it seems.[/QUOTE]

It hasn't been able to catch a damn break since the 1880s.

[itak365]

Just spent 6 months there.

It's a good thing we left when we did. Even if we were in Equateur, people were gearing up EVERYWHERE for these elections, but somehow, after encountering the decision making of even low-level people in power, you could just tell that they weren't going to happen.

It's a shame, but I guess the drive for change isn't in the hands of the powerful.

[RockmanYoshi]

[QUOTE=itak365;53022922]Just spent 6 months there.

It's a good thing we left when we did. Even if we were in Equateur, people were gearing up EVERYWHERE for these elections, but somehow, after encountering the decision making of even low-level people in power, you could just tell that they weren't going to happen.

It's a shame, but I guess the drive for change isn't in the hands of the powerful.[/QUOTE]

Were you in Mbandaka? Place depresses the hell out of me.

[itak365]

[QUOTE=RockmanYoshi;53024100]Were you in Mbandaka? Place depresses the hell out of me.[/QUOTE]

I passed through Mbandaka twice, once to buy supplies from the Lebanese, the other as a stopover after we flew out of Boende in Tshuapa Province.

Mbandaka was pretty chaotic, to say the least. Hundreds of people shouting about you, the [I]Mindele[/I] and not able to get any good prices on supplies.

[EmperorScorpious]

Hopefully the country doesn't degenerate into civil war. That seems to be the status quo the past few years with despots refusing to leave after their terms are up.