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President Joseph Kabila

Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila was expected to make a speech to parliament yesterday, less than a week before candidates can begin to register in postponed presidential elections.

The vast African country is in the grip of a crisis over whether Kabila will run in crucial, long-delayed elections in December despite his constitutional limit expiring in 2016.

The president has yet to say whether or not he intends to register, and candidates must declare their bid between July 25 and August 1.

“The National Assembly and the senate will both convene for the speech,” a joint statement from the two chambers said on Wednesday.

“The agenda has only one item, the President of the Republic’s speech on the state of the nation.”

Last week, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he had agreed to postpone his visit to the country to allow Kabila to announce “important decisions.”

Kabila, who took over from his assassinated father in 2001, presides over a country with a history of corruption, poor governance and armed conflict.

He was supposed to step down at the end of 2016 after he reached his two-term limit, but a constitutional clause allowed him to remain in office until his successor is elected.

Elections that should have been held that year were rescheduled for 2017, and postponed again to December 23, 2018.

Meanwhile, 15 people were killed during five days of clashes between armed militia in the DRC’s restive east, before the army intervened, local officials said on Wednesday.

“Five civilians and two members of the ‘Guidon’ group were killed on Monday in clashes in Kamiro,” said Cosmas Kangakolo, administrator of the Masisi territory in the North Kivu province.

A further eight civilians were killed and others were injured between Friday and Tuesday in clashes between Lukweti and Nyabiondo, he said.

North Kivu has served as a base for Hutu rebels since the genocide of Tutsis by majority Hutus in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994.

The region has long been at the centre of conflict in DRC and of tensions in the wider African Great Lakes region.

The fighting was between members of the Alliance of Patriots for a free and sovereign Congo and the Rwandan Hutu rebels against the Mai Mai Nduma Defence of Congo, Kangakolo said.

“Our troops have today taken back control of the localities of Kahira and Kamior. We’ve dislodged all the militia from there,” said army spokesperson, Guillaume Ndjike.

More than 70 armed groups were identified in December 2017 in eastern DRC. The eastern part of the country has been torn apart by armed conflict for more than two decades. — AFP