CAN a thin blue line stop a revolution? In Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, police are doing their best. On December 19th, the last day of Joseph Kabila’s final presidential term, they stood on street corners and at petrol stations, wrapped in body armour and clutching rifles. They arrested dozens of political activists and surrounded the houses of opposition politicians. The message was clear: stay at home, or risk being shot. Three cops took a short break to rob your correspondent, but most concentrated on suppressing dissent.
For now Mr Kabila, who has ruled Congo since inheriting the job from his dad in 2001, has the upper hand. But Congo, an unstable country of 80m, is plunging into a political no-man’s-land. No head of state since independence has left office peacefully after an election. The war that followed the overthrow in 1997 of Mobutu Sese Seko, a tyrant who had ruled for three decades, led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands or possibly millions, mostly from hunger and disease. One victim was Mr Kabila’s father, who was assassinated.
Tension has been building since it became clear that Mr Kabila...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2h6xCfj
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