Kinshasa rejects US warning regarding "terrorist threat"

The Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday accused Washington of "creating unnecessary fear" after the US embbady in Kinshasa warned of a "possible terrorist threat" against its mission in the country while it was leads to key elections.

"You must be wary of information from people who want to create unnecessary fear and uncertainty among the Congolese a few days before the elections," said government spokesman Lambert Mende. AFP.

On December 23, the conflict-prone country of Central Africa will go to the polls to elect a successor to longtime president Joseph Kabila and legislators for his national and provincial parliaments.

"Now that the holding of three elections on December 23, 2018 is a certainty, those who have no control over the electoral process in the DRC are trying to distract the Congolese," said Mende, also the country's minister of communications. .

The embbady quoted Saturday "credible and specific information on a possible terrorist threat against US government facilities in Kinshasa," which were closed on Monday.

The election campaign in the historic elections, which began last Thursday, will continue until December 21.

A constitutional clause allowed Kabila to remain in power as interim leader, even though his second and last elected term ended almost two years ago.

Mende is the spokesman for Kabila's protégé, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a former minister of the Radical Interior who succeeds him.

DR Congo, a poor country rich in minerals, has never experienced a peaceful transition of power since the independence of Belgium in 1960.

At the end of last month, the Congolese authorities announced that the vote would be held without the help of the international community.

Kinshasa has declined any offer of advice, monitoring and funding to help organize the polls in a country almost five times larger than France.

The previous elections of 2006 and 2011 had taken place with the material and logistical support of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUSCO.

However, relations between MONUSCO, the largest peacekeeping operation in the world, and the Kabila government have long been strained.

Kinshasa has repeatedly called for the end of the mission, which has more than 15,000 soldiers, 1,000 police and 2,500 civilians in its ranks.