Human Rights Watch warns of potential chaos in DRC

By Godfrey Olukya

ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo (AA) – International watchdog Human Rıghts Watch (HRW) has warned of chaos in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Friday should President Joseph Kabila insist to stay in power beyong his term,

In a letter titled '' Averting a Large-Scale Crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo'', Ida Sawyer,Senior, Human Rights Watch researcher, addressed a UN security council delegation that is supposed to visit the DRC

''Your visit this week to the Democratic Republic of Congo comes at a critical moment. If President Joseph Kabila stays in power beyond the end of his constitutionally mandated wo-term limit on December 19, with no clear commitments on if and when he will step down, there is a real risk that protests will erupt,” the letter said.

“Security forces will respond with excessive force, and the country could descend into widespread violence and chaos, with potentially volatile repercussions across the region,'' it added.

Human Rights Watch urged the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO, to deploy greater numbers of peacekeepers toareas where political violence might break out, including the capital Kinshasa and also allow independent human rights monitors to access detention centers .

The DRC government has said it could not hold elections this year because many voters' names had not been included in the register.

The DRC has seen several anti-Kabila demonstrations in the past few months, as the opposition parties and civil society groups call on the president to step down from power at the end of his two-term mandate in December 2016.

Between Sept. 19 and 21, at least 53 people, including seven women, two children and four police agents were killed in the capital, Kinshasa, according to a report of the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO).