Angola’s former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has handed his position as the leader of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (PMLA) party to incumbent President Joao Lourenco after more than four decades of political rule.

Dos Santos handed the PMLA leading position to Lourenco in an official ceremony at the party headquarters in the Angolan capital of Luanda on Saturday.

The 76-year-old veteran politician marked the ceremony by addressing the crowd, “Today, with my head up, I leave and pass on the baton to comrade Joao Lourenco,” marking the two men’s long-lived party affiliation.

The PMLA was born fighting against the Portuguese colonial rule over the country, gaining Angolan independence in 1975. The party dominated the Angolan political scene ever since, defeating other rival anti-colonial parties over the course of a bloody and prolonged civil war that lasted for over 26 years.

President Lourenco had served as defense minister under dos Santos’ presidency.

The announcement of dos Santos stepping down as party leader was not unprecedented. The former president had declared his intent to do so many times before, ultimately declaring in 2016 that he would resign in two years.

After dos Santos’ presidential tenure ended in 2017, the PMLA chief handpicked Lourenco as president, ending speculation on his successor. Many observers had speculated that the outgoing president was seeking to appoint a puppet, one that would preserve the lucrative business and political monopoly dos Santos had built up for his family.

The incumbent president has, however, shown himself as an independent leader, depriving many of the previous president’s affiliates of their positions, hoping to stifle corruption and ensure economic stability for foreign investors.

“Lourenco is already entirely autonomous as shown by his sacking of the dos Santos children, all of the country’s sectors have been purged,” said Benjamin Auge, an analyst with the French Institute for International Relations.

The firing of the former president’s daughter Isabel dos Santos from heading the state-owned oil company Sonangol by Lourenco is among the most important instances of the new president reining in on dos Santos’ economic monopoly.

The dos Santos resignation as PMLA leader signals a smooth handover of power in the country, leaving Lourenco in full power of state institutions.

Angola, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is Africa’s second largest oil exporter after Nigeria. The country’s economy fell into recession in 2016 with the unemployment rate reaching 25 percent. Despite being one of Africa’s richest states per capita, Angola remains one of the world’s most unequal countries with much of its population living in poverty.

Source: Presstv

The African Union Commission should for Africa’s sake; its dignity and self-respect do everything to stop President Paul Biya of Cameroon from his intended extension of his autocratic rule in October. The idea of a seventh term for Biya, another seven-year tenure, is abominable, tyrannical and reflects the helplessness of the people of Cameroon in the face of this tyrant to whom nothing else counts than power. It is obvious he has lost all regard for his people, so he can foist on them his medieval kind of rule.

Paul Biya is 85 years old. He came to power in 1982 when his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who had been president since Independence in 1960, eventually decided to quit owing to failing health. When Ahidjo left, he extorted from the people of Cameroon incredible, scandalous rewards which shocked the world’s diplomatic and intelligence circles at the time.

Cameroonians had thought that Ahidjo stayed too long. If President Biya awards himself a 7th term, he would have spent nearly double the tenure of Ahidjo. He would have nearly matched Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi’s 44 years. He would have been in power for 43 years, nearly one half of a century.

It is of little use enlisting the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to help dissuade President Biya from seeking a 7th term. The 11 countries seem to have a disdain for term limits. Central Africa holds the world’s largest collection of gerontocrats. Their attitude to democracy encourages men like Paul Biya. Jose Eduardo dos Santos, for instance, quit being President of Angola last year. He ruled the country for 38 years and left his two children controlling the commanding heights of the Angolan economy. His daughter, Isabel dos Santos, is the undisputed richest woman in Africa. Hundreds of Burundians had been killed and hundreds of thousands had fled the country in the last three years because of President Nkurunziza’s determination to serve a third term in office contrary to the constitution. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it took the Catholic Church many months of protests from the pulpit and in the streets to persuade President Joseph Kabila to reconsider his ambition to seek a third term in office.

We do not know what else actuates President Biya to seek a seventh term other than ambition. He is a man with precarious health, which necessitates his taking regular trips abroad for treatment, so frequently that he is sometimes referred to as the “absentee president.” People close to him say he suffers from prostate cancer in addition to heart ailments. It is said that in the years 2006 and 2009, he spent one third of the years abroad.

There can be no doubt that the current political upheavals in Cameroon were the result of the misrule of President Biya. The Northwest and the Southwest Anglophone provinces eventually declared the sovereign state of Ambazonia because President Biya was unable to administer those territories with fairness and justice and, worse, he failed to persuade the secessionists to see a rosy future in Cameroon as presently constituted. Indeed, one of their conditions for a peaceful negotiation of the crisis is that Mr. Biya must quit office. President Biya, apparently in defiance of the agitators, is seeking a 7th term.

The Nigerian government must review its policy toward Cameroon to take into consideration Biya’s extended stay which now constitutes part of the problem and his high-handed tactics in dealing with the agitators, which complicates the resolution of the conflict. The surrender of the leaders of the Ambazonia state, who were taking refuge in Nigeria, to the Biya government by Nigeria is a poor policy choice, which has turned tragic in its consequences. Our good neighbourly policy has always been good as a strategic position, but the crisis in Cameroon is the kind Nigeria ought to be able to mediate successfully before it degenerates.

We appeal to the international community to persuade Paul Biya not to seek a 7th term because it would inflame the delicate situation in the country and make a resolution more difficult. The teeming thousands of Cameroonians in Cross River State, in Benue and Taraba States have overwhelmed those Nigerian states already. And that is just a tip of the iceberg. If a civil war actually breaks out, and all the auguries are present, we think it is a lot cheaper to persuade President Biya to handover to a younger generation of leaders capable of dousing the flames than to risk a civil war which Biya’s 7th term would certainly provoke.

Culled from The Sunnews online

Democratic Republic of Congo’s top court on Monday definitively excluded opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba from December’s presidential election because of a witness tampering conviction at the International Criminal Court.

Bemba, a popular former vice president, was tipped as one of the leading candidates to replace outgoing President Joseph Kabila. His exclusion from the race could spark a violent reaction by his supporters.

His defeat to Kabila in the 2006 election touched off deadly clashes in the capital Kinshasa between his supporters and state troops. He then spent a decade in prison in The Hague before his war crimes convictions for murders and rapes committed by his militia in Central African Republic were quashed in May.

In a judgment broadcast on national television, the constitutional court said the election commission had rightly invalidated Bemba’s candidacy last month, finding that witness tampering is a form of corruption as stipulated in the electoral law.

The Dec. 23 election is due to usher in Congo’s first democratic transition of power after Kabila agreed last month to respect constitutional term limits and step aside in favor of close loyalist Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary’s candidacy.

That announcement has calmed tensions that exploded into deadly street protests when Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his constitutional mandate in December 2016.

But fears persist of further violence with Kabila’s opponents accusing him of trying to rig the vote to ensure Ramazani’s victory.

“Congo has fallen very low!” the secretary-general of Bemba’s MLC party wrote on Twitter after the judgment.

Kabila’s camp denies that it is improperly trying to influence the election.

Besides Bemba, opposition leader Moise Katumbi was barred from re-entering Congo last month to register his candidacy after two years in exile.

Katumbi placed joint first in a rare public opinion poll in July with 19 percent of the vote. Another opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi, also received 19 percent, while Bemba placed third with 17 percent.

Ramazani did not receive enough votes to be included in the results.

The constitutional court also on Monday upheld the invalidation of former prime minister Adolphe Muzito’s candidacy but reinstated another former prime minister Samy Badibanga as a candidate.

Reuters

Former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba’s candidacy in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s upcoming presidential elections was deemed “inadmissible” by the country’s election commission on Friday, as opposition groups cried foul.

The commission rejected the candidacy of Bemba, a rival to DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, on the basis that he had been “convicted by the International Criminal Court” in March 2018 and handed a year in prison and a 300,000 euro fine for bribing witnesses.

Bemba’s war crimes convictions were overturned by the court in The Hague and he returned to Kinshasa in August after being acquitted.

Just ahead of the election commission’s announcement, the political opposition to president Kabila issued a fresh rallying cry, accusing the “powers that be” of seeking to “exclude” multiple opposition candidates.

Opposition groups called on Kabila to free up the electoral process and “stop giving injunctions to the election commission,” according to a statement signed by Bemba, and exiled opposition politicians Moise Katumbi and Felix Tshisekedi.

Overall, the election commission has excluded six out of the 25 candidates who had registered to run in the presidential elections, set for December 23. In addition to Bemba, the commission has barred three of Kabila’s former Prime ministers — Samy Badibanga, Adolphe Muzito, and Antoine Gizenga.

“These exclusions are unacceptable and show once again that the electoral commission is totally dominated by Kabila,” Moise Katumbi wrote on Twitter. A former governor of Katanga who joined the opposition in 2015, Katumbi said that he had been blocked from returning to the DRC to register his candidacy.

He has been living in Belgium since 2016 and has been sentenced absentia to three years in prison. Considered a fugitive by the Ministry of Justice, he is the subject of an international arrest warrant.

“With the population, the opposition, civil society, our partners, let’s keep up the pressure, refuse to accept these sham elections,” Katumbi added.

The six excluded candidates have 48 hours to appeal to the Constitutional Court. The election commission must publish a final list of candidates by September 19.

Suspicion

On August 8, Kabila, 46, eased months of tension when he signalled he would not stand again for the office he has held since 2001.

He threw his support behind a close ally as the candidate of his political majority — former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who is permanent secretary of Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).

The DRC opposition, which shed blood in protests against Kabila’s grip on power after his mandate ended in 2016, remains deeply suspicious.

It has raised concerns about nuts-and-bolts issues such as the electoral roll and the voting method, and fears Kabila is simply plotting to remain the power behind the throne.

A country of some 80 million people, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960.

Kabila took over from his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, who was assassinated by a bodyguard.

His tenure over the vast mineral-rich country has been marked by corruption, inequality and unrest. The watchdog Transparency International ranked it 156 out of 176 countries in its 2016 corruption index.

Bemba lost presidential elections to Kabila in 2006 and was later accused of treason when his bodyguards clashed with the army in Kinshasa. In 2007, he fled to Belgium, where he had spent part of his youth.

He was then arrested in Europe on a warrant by the ICC for war crimes committed by his private army in the neighbouring Central African Republic from 2002-3, when its then-president Ange-Felix Patasse sought his help to repel a coup attempt.

He was sentenced in The Hague in 2016 to 18 years before the conviction was overturned in June on appeal.

The ICC declared Bemba could not be held responsible for crimes committed by his troops.

The European Union, like the UN and US, is closely following the election buildup.

It has frozen assets and denied visas to a dozen Congolese figures — including Shadary — on the grounds of human rights abuses since the constitutional end of Kabila’s second and last mandate in December 2016.

(AFP)

Two top-ranking officials in Kenya were charged with corruption this week in a $3 billion Chinese-built railway project, as part of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s efforts to show no official is out of reach in the war on graft. However, some analysts question if the charges will lead to convictions or if they are simply political theater.

Kenya Railways’ managing director Atanas Maina and Lands Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri are accused of overseeing $2 million in fraudulent compensation payments. More than a dozen other Kenyan officials and business people are also facing charges related to the illegal buying and selling of the state corporation’s land.

While the accused deny the charges, the arrests were hailed in Kenya as a rare crackdown on top-level corruption.

However, political analyst Linda Oloo says the prosecutions are less about systemic change and more about Kenyatta.

“Uhuru [Kenyatta] is more concerned about his legacy [and] how will history judge him after his presidency, so that is why he is trying to play the good-man syndrome right now, by doing things that will appeal to the general public. What he is doing is mostly for his image after office,” Oloo said.

In June, Kenyatta announced that all public servants would undergo a compulsory “lifestyle audit” to account for the sources of their income and assets.

Some argue it’s not all political theater.

Kenyatta and Swiss President Alain Berset signed an agreement aimed at helping Kenya recover corrupt assets stashed by Kenyan officials in Swiss banks.

In addition, Kenyatta’s director of public prosecutions has arrested top officials at Kenya’s National Youth Service, electric power provider, and more than a dozen firms accused of benefiting from illegal tenders and misappropriated funds.

And Kenyatta on Sunday declared his determination to win the war on graft, even if he has to go after his close associates.

“Over the last few weeks, I have lost many friends,” Kenyatta said. “Many have called me asking, ‘How can you be watching when all the destruction is going on?’ I say a time has come to fight impunity.”

Opposition leader Raila Odinga last year accused the president of diverting the railway to benefit the Kenyatta family. Odinga ceased his criticism in April after making a deal with Kenyatta to work together.

In June, a Kenyan lawmaker linked Kenyatta’s younger brother, Muhoho, to the importation of contraband sugar. In response, President Kenyatta said that if there is evidence, then his brother should be investigated and prosecuted.

But going after a sitting president’s family is unlikely in Kenya, and the National Land Accord Movement’s David Kimanzi doubts top officials will be among those punished.

“There has not been a single conviction of a person who has looted the public coffers. Every person now is looking for how it is going to be their turn to eat,” Kimanzi said.

Despite this week’s high-level arrests, there are still officials who are untouchable, according to Kimanzi. If you touch them, he says, you touch the very core of the government.

Culled from the VOA

With elections just a few months away, the political situation in Cameroon looks bleak. There is the escalating conflict in the Anglophone region, there is the Boko Haram-linked instability in the north and then there is the president who is determined to extend his decades-long stay in power.

It is the Anglophone crisis that is currently making international headlines, although it has been brewing for several years.

The conflict between state security forces and armed separatist groups appears to have intensified in recent weeks. The separatists believe that English-speakers in Cameroon — about 20% of the population of 24-million — have been marginalised and discriminated against by the predominantly Francophone government.

“If you see a civil war as a war between the government and its citizens, then I think it is headed towards a civil war, if it’s not a civil war yet,” Emmanuel Freudenthal, one of the few journalists to have reported from the affected region, told the Mail & Guardian.

Fighting on both sides has been characterised by extreme violence. A Human Rights Watch report released last month documented abuses by the separatist armed groups and the Cameroonian security forces. The report documents the separatists’ brutal enforcement of boycotts, particularly in schools, as well as the government’s excessive use of force against demonstrators, and instances of torture and extra-judicial killings.

The clashes have prompted many in the region to flee. The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that more than 15 000 people have been displaced in the country since December last year, and that an additional 20 000 to 50 000 are seeking refuge across the border in Nigeria.

In addition, Cameroon is battling to contain a Boko Haram insurgency — another conflict characterised by extreme violence. Last month, a video emerged that showed Cameroonian soldiers executing two women and their children in the country’s far north, on suspicion of supporting Boko Haram. The video is representative of the military’s heavy-handed approach to dealing with tensions in the north and the Anglophone regions, say activists.

What does all this mean for the election? President Paul Biya has governed Cameroon for 35 years, and plans to run again in the October 7 poll — even though he is, infamously, an absentee president, spending up to a third of his time out of the country, usually in a luxury hotel in Switzerland.

“It’s going to be quite hard to organise voting in the Anglophone regions. It’s already hard to organise voting in the extreme north,” said Freudenthal. “That means a whole section of the population is not going to be able to vote.”

Things are probably going to get worse, he added. “The government’s military strategy has been to increase violence and increase military attacks against both armed groups and the civilian population…I can’t predict what the armed groups are going to do but it seems most likely they are going to ramp up their activities to make a point.”

‘Ghost towns’

The separatist movement is hard to pin down, given its fractured nature. Though the protests in 2016 were led by lawyers and teachers, with a decidedly non-violent bent, the government’s harsh reaction has strengthened the hand of hardliners and armed factions. They want to secede from Cameroon proper and form a new state called Ambazonia — although even among the hardliners there are a variety of actors who want slightly different things, and with different opinions on how to achieve them.

Though there is a group of activists who describe themselves as an “interim government in exile,” the extent to which this group is considered legitimate by a plurality of Anglophone Cameroonians is unclear. Human Rights Watch estimates that there are between five and 20 armed factions.

The sheer number of armed groups may complicate any attempt to broker a ceasefire or peace agreement — not that any such attempt has yet been made. In fact, the violence is getting worse.

According to Jeffrey Smith, head of Vanguard Africa, an advocacy group: “Since August 2016 especially, the acts of violence [by the armed groups] have become more routine and more brazen…at this point, it almost seems as if armed groups and government forces are actively bidding to outdo one another in terms of shock value.”

For example, in late July, a police officer was decapitated by suspected separatists.

In addition to brutal attacks on the Cameroonian government, the separatist movements are also responsible for the enforcement of “ghost town”days — mass boycotts of work and schools. Those who violate the boycotts are often subjected to brutal retaliation, forcing compliance with the armed separatists’ agenda.

As Max Bone, an expatriate development worker based in Buea, one of the Anglophone region’s major cities, described on social media: “The ghost town has yet to officially start in Buea, but the gunshots have. Around 30 [minutes] of back and [forth] shooting between the non-state armed groups and the military took place just now. Everyone is urging one another to sleep on the floor tonight to be safe.”

Activists say that the ghost days are intended as a form of economic sabotage. They serve other purposes too: as an information-gathering tool for the separatists, and to help telegraph the strength of the movement to the Cameroonian government.

A case in point: the July 23 ghost-town day in Buea, where the boycott was successfully implemented despite being forbidden by the mayor, simultaneously highlighted the strength of the separatists and the weakness of the government.

It is not yet clear how the separatists will use their strength in the upcoming election, which roughly coincides with the second anniversary of the declaration of an independent Ambazonia. They could throw their support behind the opposition party candidate, Joshua Osih Nabangi, running on the Social Democratic Front ticket,or they could boycott the vote. Reports from Buea claim that separatist groups there have beaten people carrying voting cards, declaring them to be the enemy.

“When they claim that simply possessing a voter card makes you an enemy, it gives a disturbing sign as to what their values actually are,” said one aid worker working in the region, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Government weakness

As evidenced by the failure to put an end to ghost days, the Cameroonian government’s ability to project its authority into Anglophone regions is limited. Perhaps because of this, the government’s response to the crisis has been heavy-handed. Human Rights Watch has documented a number of testimonies concerning the government firing live ammunition into crowds of demonstrators.

Videos have emerged from the region, some purportedly showing families being massacred, others detailing the experience of a woman who claims to have been raped in government custody, and others documenting beatings and humiliation. Though the Cameroonian government has promised an investigation into the video of the execution in the country’s far north, so far the government has not publicly disciplined the security sector officials accused of misconduct in Anglophone regions. Furthermore, the Biya administration has targeted Anglophone activists in a series of arrests of high-profile activists and an internet blackout that lasted 93 consecutive days.

Biya himself presents a hurdle to the prospect of a swift and peaceful resolution of the grievances of Anglophone Cameroonians. His reputation for authoritarian repression and his persistent marginalisation of the Anglophones makes the prospect for an inclusive, peace-oriented dialogue seem dim.

Given the Biya administration’s posture towards the separatist movement — as well as its attitude towards democratic norms of accountability — and the number of armed groups that may serve as spoilers to any peace process, there is a need for external pressure to bring all the parties to the table for an inclusive dialogue. This might be a problem that Cameroon cannot solve on its own.

But if the regional and international community is going to make any difference before the presidential vote, they are going to have to act soon. Ensuring that Cameroon’s elections are free, fair, peaceful and credible — and thereby ensuring that all Cameroonians get to exercise their democratic right — demands action today.

“I am especially concerned about the blatant, increasingly complex forms of human rights abuses going on in the country for the last 18 months or more. The trends are particularly alarming,” said Kathleen Ndongmo, an entrepreneur and human rights activist.

“There is very little action from regional bodies and the international community which is extremely disturbing … It’s about time coalitions of civil society at home, in the region and globally begin to find ways to let this government know that we will not stand by and watch them continue to violate a people with impunity without consequence. If the government of Cameroon will not stop oppressing the people of Cameroon, then they should be ready to face serious consequences, one of which can be sanctions against government officials directly.”

Source: Mail/Guardian

Zimbabwe’s former finance minister and opposition leader Tendai Biti appeared in court on Thursday to be charged with stoking post-election violence in a case watched around the world as a test of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s treatment of opponents.

Biti, whose People’s Democratic Party had formed an election alliance with Nelson Chamisa’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), sought asylum in neighboring Zambia on Wednesday but was deported back to Zimbabwe in a move condemned by the United States.

He was also charged with falsely and unlawfully announcing results of the July 30 election, which Chamisa rejected as fraudulent and is set to challenge in the Constitutional Court on Friday.

If found guilty, Biti could face up to 10 years in jail, a cash fine or both. He was released on bail and will appear in court again on Friday.

“It’s been an ordeal, but we survive. We live to fight another day, I am glad to be home,” Biti told reporters soon after his release.

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said it would be a serious violation of international law if Zambian authorities had handed Biti over despite a court order to the contrary, which his lawyer said had indeed been issued by the Zambian High Court.

The European Union, Australia and Canada also said they were “deeply disturbed by continuing reports that opposition supporters are being targeted by members of the Zimbabwean security forces”.

Biti had been in hiding since last week, when six people were killed in a widely condemned army crackdown on protests over the declaration of victory by Mnangagwa’s ruling ZANU-PF party.

State prosecutors did not oppose bail for Biti, which was set at $5,000. He was ordered to surrender his passport and title deeds to his house, and banned from addressing political rallies or news conferences until the case is over.

Mnangagwa said he had intervened to ensure Biti was released, but also said that Biti faced serious charges and that the legal process should be allowed to take its course.

“At such a crucial time in the history of the new Zimbabwe, nothing is more important than unity, peace and dialogue. I call on all parties to immediately cease from all forms of incitement to violence,” Mnangagwa wrote on his official Twitter page.

Some fear the post-election turmoil will derail the chances of mending an economy facing acute shortages of cash and desperate for foreign investment.

(Source: Reuters)

Democratic of Congo’s ruling party on Wednesday named a candidate for long delayed elections due to hold in December this year. Today was the deadline slated by the elections body, CENI, for submission of candidature.

The candidate is in the person of Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a former minister of interior. His nomination was confirmed by information minister Lambert Mende.

The 57-year-old parliamentarian and former governor of the Maniema Province is expected to replace Kabila if the ruling party wins the upcoming polls.

The international community especially the United States have been at their “loudest” in calling for Kabila to exit and allow a newly elected leader to take over the reigns – as stipulated by the constitution.

Kabila’s silence kept many watchers on tenterhooks and left the country in a tense state. Meanwhile, in next door Zambia, one of his major opponents remains locked out of the country. Moise Katumbi has failed by air and land to return to the country after about two years of self imposed exile.

The former Katanga province governor is one of leading opponents hoping to file to contest for the presidency. Others include Felix Tshisekedi – son of veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi. Ex VP Jean Pierre Bemba is in the race as are others.

Kabila, in power since 2001, was barred by term limits from running for re-election but he repeatedly refused to commit publicly to not standing.

Security forces have killed dozens of protesters since Kabila refused to quit power at the end of mandate in December 2016, saying the government was not yet prepared to hold the election to succeed him. Militia violence in the eastern borderlands with Rwanda and Uganda has also risen.

Western powers and Congo’s neighbours fear even worse violence across the country if Kabila digs in and runs, with memories still fresh of civil wars around the turn of the century that killed millions, most from hunger and disease.

Source: Reuters/Africa News

Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi has been blocked from entering the country to register as a candidate in December’s long-delayed presidential election, a spokesman said Saturday.

Zambia’s government told Katumbi of the refusal by Congolese authorities, Olivier Kamitatu Etsu said in a post on Twitter, adding: “Have you ever seen a government forbid a so-called fugitive to turn himself in?”

Katumbi had been a leading presidential contender before fleeing Congo in May 2016 as prosecutors announced their intent to try him on charges of hiring mercenaries, which he denied. The legal issues emerged after he resigned from the ruling party in 2015.

Now the former governor of the copper-rich Katanga region is trying to come home ahead of the Aug. 8 deadline for candidates to register. He said on Friday that Congo’s government also had not permitted him to arrive by plane.

“In trying to block me, they want to take away Congolese citizens’ right to real elections,” Katumbi said on Twitter, where his party posted video of crowds running alongside his motorcade at a dusty border post.

Amnesty International has called the blocking of Katumbi’s return a “flagrant violation” of his constitutional rights, and Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth has called it President Joseph Kabila’s “latest ploy to retain power beyond his constitutional term limit.”

Congo’s presidential election has been delayed since late 2016, to the growing frustration of the opposition and international community. The opposition worries that the 47-year-old Kabila, who by law cannot run again, will find a way to hold onto power. He has been president of the turbulent, mineral-rich country since 2001, when his father Laurent was killed in office.

Earlier in the week Katumbi congratulated another rival for the presidency, former Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, as he submitted his candidacy. Bemba returned to Congo on Wednesday after more than a decade following his acquittal on war crimes charges by appeals judges at the International Criminal Court in June.

Congo’s constitutional court still has to rule on potential candidates’ eligibility, raising the possibility that Bemba   and Katumbi, if manages to return   could be barred from running.

Bemba has called on the government to not exclude Katumbi from participating, calling him “a major political player in this country.”

(AP)

President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday called for calm as police fired live rounds, water cannon and teargas in Harare at crowds protesting alleged fraud in Zimbabwe’s elections. At least three people were killed in the unrest, police said. “At this crucial time, I call on everyone to desist from provocative declarations and statements,” Mnangagwa said on Twitter. “Now is the time for responsibility and above all, peace.”

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi also appealed for calm and said the army was deployed on the streets to restore “peace and tranquility”.

“The presence of the army is not to intimidate people but to ensure that law and order is maintained. They are there to assist the police,” Ziyambi said in an interview broadcast on eNCA television. “They are there as a people’s army to ensure that peace and security prevails.” Zimbabwe police on Wednesday fired live rounds, water cannon and teargas at opposition supporters in Harare as tensions erupted over alleged fraud in the election.

Officers had been facing off through a locked gate against crowds who brandished opposition party banners and chanted slogans against the ruling ZANU-PF party. Protesters burned cars and threw rocks as helicopters hovered above.

“You said you were better than Mugabe – you are the picture of Mugabe,” shouted one young male protester wearing a white T-shirt. “We need security for the people.”

European Union election observers had earlier criticised the elections, the first since long-time ruler Robert Mugabe stepped down in November, for being held on an “un-level playing field”.

Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has accused President Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of using underhand tactics to steal the election from them.

An angry crowd of mostly young men, some of whom covered their faces, whistled and chanted “Chamisa, Chamisa” in downtown Harare.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission showed Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF cruising to a big majority after picking up 109 seats against 41 for the opposition MDC. Another 58 seats are yet to be declared.

The MDC won in most urban centres, where it enjoys majority support. The party accused the election commission on Tuesday of deliberately delaying results of this week’s vote to favour the ruling party, reporting irregularities in the first poll since the removal of Robert Mugabe in a bloodless November coup.

Mnangagwa said the violence was meant to disrupt the election and blamed the MDC leadership.

“We hold the opposition MDC Alliance and its whole leadership responsible for this disturbance of national peace, which was meant to disrupt the electoral process,” Mnangagwa said, according to ZBC.

In a late-night press conference, Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu warned that the government “will not tolerate any of the actions that were witnessed today”.

“The opposition … have perhaps interpreted our understanding to be weak, and I think they are testing our resolve and I think they are making a big mistake,” he said.

Chamisa’s spokesman, Nkululeko Sibanda, told reporters the army’s reaction was unjustified: “Today we saw the deployment of military tanks and firing of live ammunition on civilians for no apparent reason.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on Zimbabwe’s political leaders and people to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)