The Congo-Fraught Elections

CONGO

Fraught Elections

With the first results set to come out this week, US President Donald Trump has deployed 80 soldiers and “appropriate combat equipment” to Central Africa amid fears that Congo’s long-delayed election may erupt into violence.

The troops are being sent to Gabon, from where they will be ready to protect US citizens and diplomatic facilities in neighboring Congo if violence breaks out, NBC News reported.

Since voting began on Dec. 30, there have been reports of irregularities from election observers and the opposition.

President Joseph Kabila has held office since 2001, when his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated. He was subsequently elected in 2006 in the country’s first free and fair elections. The ongoing polls should mark the country’s first peaceful democratic transfer of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

Kabila’s term expired in 2016, though he remained in office by dint of repeated election delays, and term limits prevent him from running again. His handpicked successor, Emmanuel Shadary, remains under European Union sanctions for serious human rights violations.