Kinshasa authorities cited ethnic fighting  in the Yumbi region for blocking voting there in last month’s presidential election.

The western province of Mai Ndombe has been riven for generations by ethnic fighting between the Nune and Téndé, communities.

Authorities acknowledged that more than 300 people died in this conflict at the end of last year.

Earlier this month, the UN put that figure at 890.

Now the discovery of the 50 mass graves and several individual burial sites in the area has authorities fearing the number could be higher.

The graves were uncovered by local security forces working with the UN Joint Human Rights Office.

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Bart Ouvry is being booted out because the EU extended sanctions against ruling party candidate Emmanuel Shadary.

EU sanctions were slapped on Emmanuel Shadary for his role, as a member of Joseph Kabila’s government, in the brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2017.

Despite objections from the DRC government, the EU’s extended these punitive measures.

Violence and chaos reigns in the DRC ahead of tomorrow’s presidential elections.

Rioters in the eastern city of Beni, ransacked an EBOLA assessment centre, protesting against the authorities decision to delay voting there and in Butembo and Yumbi until March because of violence and the spreading EBOLA outbreak.

The post EU says the expulsion of its envoy to the DRC is completely unjustified appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Angry voters have embarked on a general strike and taken to the streets of the eastern capital Goma saying the postponement of the poll in there cities is an attempt to rig the election.

President Joseph Kabila says the electoral commission is playing by the book postponing Sunday’s voting in Beni and Butembu in eastern DRC and Yumbi in the west.

He says it’s all about saving lives in the face of ethnic and rebel violence and the spread of the EBOLA virus.

Opposition voters say there was campaigning in these areas – which are all opposition strongholds –  so there’s no reason there shouldn’t be voting.

The post Joseph Kabila insists DRC election delay is all about saving lives appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

They’re saying it would be impossible to hold a credible process  in these areas because of insecurity and the EBOLA outbreak.

The opposition’s calling it another strategy to hijack the truth of the poll.

The areas where the vote has been further delayed are Beni and Butembo at the epicenter of the EBOLA outbreak in the east of the DRC and Yumbi in the west , where 100 people died in ethnic clashes last week.

The move by the electoral commission means the votes of  more than a million of the country’s 46 electors will not be considered in the results to be announced next month.

Beni and Butembo are considered opposition bastions.

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