UN Security Council presses for peaceful Congo transition on trip
The United Nations Security Council pushed for a peaceful transition of power in Congo during a weekend visit aimed at averting massive violence when President Joseph Kabila's mandate runs out on Dec. 19.
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The visit by diplomats from countries on the council on November 12-13 aimed to break the deadlock over whether Kabila should step down before an election which, thanks to slow voter registration, has been delayed until at least April 2018.
He has vowed to stay on until the poll goes ahead, but the opposition accuse Kabila of manipulating the process to cling to power in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a charge his supporters deny.
Several protests have erupted against Kabila, who has been in power since his father was assassinated in 2001. More than 50 people were killed in street protests in September.
Security Council members stressed that Kabila's seeking to change the constitution to allow him to run for a third elected mandate, as the opposition accuse him of doing and some of his supporters suggest he might, would be no solution.
"The DRC is at a pivotal moment in its history," Francois Delattre, France's ambassador to the United Nations, told journalists after the meetings on November 12.
"For the first time, a peaceful transition of power at the end of the president's mandate is possible."
