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KINSHASA. – Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of the Congolese capital Kinshasa yesterday to welcome home opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi after a nearly two-year stay overseas for medical treatment. Tshisekedi’s return to delirious crowds flashing victory signs comes at a crucial moment in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as a near-certain delay to a presidential election slated for November risks triggering violence in the unstable Central African nation.
President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, is required by term limits to step down this year, but opponents accuse him of delaying the November 27 poll to cling to power. The government says logistical and budgetary constraints make it unrealistic to hold the election on time.
Kabila’s opponents hope that Tshisekedi’s return can rally people to the streets after opposition protests over the last year failed to attract large turnouts. Some supporters carried banners with Tshisekedi’s picture calling him president of the republic.
“He is the hope of all people,” said Eric Ilunga, a 31-year-old businessman who awaited Tshisekedi’s arrival outside Kinshasa’s main airport. The 83-year-old politician, who left Congo in August 2014 for unspecified medical treatment in Brussels, has been visibly frail in public appearances over the last two years and leaned on his son as he slowly descended the stairs of a private plane.
Tshisekedi, who formed Congo’s first organised opposition platform, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), under long-time autocrat Mobutu Sese Seko in 1982, was runner-up in Kabila’s 2011 re-election, a vote observers said was marred by massive fraud. He is scheduled to speak at an opposition rally on Sunday. – Reuters.
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