{A political crisis is growing in Democratic Republic of Congo over the possibility that President Joseph Kabila might seek a third term in office, a senior U.S. official warned on Wednesday.}<\/p>\n
Tom Perriello, U.S. Special Envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes Region, said if Kabila sought a third term in November elections, even though the constitution bars such a move, it could undermine political and economic gains of the past decade.<\/p>\n
Kabila has stopped short of saying he will step down in November at the end of his second elected mandate, prompting concerns he wants another term.<\/p>\n
“A political crisis is building as the DRC prepares, or rather fails to prepare, for upcoming historic elections scheduled for this November,” Perriello told a congressional hearing. “If the DRC chooses the path of Burundi, the scale of
\nhuman suffering could dwarf what we have seen next door.”<\/p>\n
More than 240,000 people have fled political violence in Burundi, sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision last year to run for a third term. It has raised concerns of a bloody ethnic conflict in a region where memories of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide are still fresh.<\/p>\n
Perriello said it appeared increasingly possible that Kabila was seeking reelection, pointing at delays by his administration to prepare for the elections.<\/p>\n
“A confrontation between President Kabila and those demanding timely and credible elections in the country is not inevitable, but it is becoming increasingly probable,” he said.<\/p>\n
Rwandan meddling<\/p>\n
Perriello and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. assistant secretary of African Affairs, also raised concerns over reports that Rwanda’s government was meddling in Burundi’s conflict.<\/p>\n
“We have seen a number of reports from our colleagues in the field that suggest the Rwandan government has been involved in destabilizing activities in Burundi,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “We have raised these concerns with the Rwandan government and encouraged them to play a productive role and not to do anything that might further destabilize Burundi.”<\/p>\n
Perriello said there were “credible reports” that Burundi refugees, including children, were being recruited from camps in Rwanda to fight on behalf of the Burundian opposition.<\/p>\n
Burundi and Rwanda have the same ethnic mix, about 85 percent Hutus and 15 percent Tutsis. A 12-year civil war in Burundi, which ended in 2005, pitted a Tutsi-led army against Hutu rebel groups. The United States is Rwanda’s largest national donor.<\/p>\n
Reuters revealed a confidential report to the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 3 which accused Rwanda of recruiting and training Burundian refugees with the goal of ousting Nkurunziza.<\/p>\n
Source:Voice of America:[US: Political Crisis Building in Democratic Republic of Congo->http:\/\/www.voanews.com\/content\/us-political-crisis-building-remocratic-republic-congo\/3185552.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{A political crisis is growing in Democratic Republic of Congo over the possibility that President Joseph Kabila might seek a third term in office, a senior U.S. official warned on Wednesday.} Tom Perriello, U.S. Special Envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes Region, said if Kabila sought a third term in November elections, even though the constitution […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000072099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2475],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-voice-of-america"],"bylines":[{"id":2475,"name":"VOICE OF AMERICA","slug":"voice-of-america","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2475,"name":"VOICE OF AMERICA","slug":"voice-of-america","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000072099,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23133.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23133.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23133.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23133.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23133.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton23133.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000072099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23133"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23133"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}