The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) sharply criticizes the fact that the upcoming presidential elections in Congo were postponed. The human rights organization accuses the government of Congo of postponing the elections merely in order to keep President Joseph Kabila – who has been ruling the country illegally since December 2016 – in power. "The power struggle is a threat to the lives of millions of people. President Kabila's tactics are cynical and irresponsible. He obviously doesn't care that 1.4 million Congolese were forced to flee from violence and escalating conflicts in 2018," criticized Ulrich Delius, the STP's director, in Göttingen on Friday. Furter, he emphasized that Congo has more pressing issues than offering Kabila a stage for his attempts to continue his kleptocracy.

According to Delius, Congo needs a credible government to ensure that the civilian population will be protected from new outbreaks of violence, from lootings and marginalization. It is scandalous that a total of 5.9 million people are on the run in the country – and 13 million people are dependent on humanitarian aid, while Kabila's only concern is to secure his rule. About 4.3 million children are suffering from malnutrition, but not even humanitarian aid workers are safe in the country. On average, there are at least two attacks on aid workers every day.

The STP also criticizes the systematic attempts to obstruct the election campaigns of opposition politicians: interfering with campaign appearances, restrictions of media presence, and brutal crackdowns on demonstrations. In order to secure his power, Kabila is supporting the former Interior Minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who is supposed to become Kabila's successor.

The long-overdue elections were postponed to Thursday, December 30, 2018. Observers had been expecting this, as the electoral commission and the government had already been preparing the people for a possible postponement of the elections for weeks. The postponement is mainly justified with a warehouse fire in which important election materials had been stored. However, the course of events and the prompt damage reports had raised the suspicion that the fire was staged to justify a postponement of the election.

Header image: Ryan Brown via UN Photos