KINSHASA (INPS | GIN) - Members of the Congolese opposition are pushing for elections this year, and for President Joseph Kabila to step down if elections are not held.
Seven senior members of the ruling coalition have already been expelled for urging the President not to cling to power after December 19, 2016, the official end of his second term. The planning minister was also sacked from his post reportedly on order of the president.
The fate of President Kabila is the central issue that consumes Congolese politics today. As frustration grows, the Kabila regime has restricted political space, clamped down on free expression and stepped up its jailing of Congolese youth. The U.S. State Department said it was "troubled by the harassment and detention of peaceful activists and opposition leaders" while Human Rights Watch issued a scathing indictment of the regime’s clampdown on peaceful protests and a spate of arrests countrywide.
NEW YORK | KAMPALA – A crowded field of candidates squared off with President Yoweri Museveni at a rare debate this week, just days before national polls slated to take place on February 18.
NEW YORK | ABUJA - Critics who examined Nigeria’s budget for 2016 are shaking their heads in disbelief at the sight of excess and waste so familiar from previous regimes.
NEW YORK | NAIROBI - Kenya’s tea planters are in for a much-needed lift with or without caffeine as trade with one the world’s 10 biggest tea-consuming nations comes on line.
NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA - Surely, Ethiopia would rather be known for something other than the cyclical hunger-producing droughts spurred in part by regular episodes of El Nino.
NEW YORK | KAMPALA - The unspoiled Zika forest, located on the edge of Lake Victoria, home to birds, leopards, rabbits, pythons and other wildlife, is suddenly abuzz with curious western journalists and others eager to visit the birthplace of the mosquito which has been linked to an alarming condition among new-borns in Brazil.
