DR Congo: CENCO concerned over crisis within ruling coalition

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) – Members of the Permanent committee of the Congolese National Episcopal Conference (CENCO) have expressed concerns over the crisis shaking the ruling coalition.

In a message read on Monday at the inter-diocesan center in Kinshasa, the CENCO Secretary-General, Archbishop Donatien Nshole, said ‘’A year after the presidential power transfer, multiform crisis has occurred and people are worried over the highly expected social change."

Nshole was making reference to decisions taken at the meeting of the CENCO permanent committee held on 24-28 February in Kinshasa.

Those archbishops denounced the tension within the ruling coalition which has consequences on the governance and disrupts the functioning of the government.

For them, the allies seem more concerned by their political interests than the service they provide to the people who continues living in misery.

‘’It is unacceptable that the country is taken hostage by a deal which is actually occult’’, they said, adding that many problems which the country is facing remain without appropriate solutions because of the crisis.

The archbishops also deplored an unjustified and scandalous enrichment of a small group of politicians to the detriment of the great majority of populations, as well as the persistence of corruption and embezzlement of public funds.

‘’The measures announced to combat these phenomenon remain without effects’’, they regretted, expressing concerns following the persistence of insecurity in the east of the country, cleaned out by local and foreign armed gangs, particularly in the Ituri, north and south Kivu.

The archbishops also condemned the lack of population census and the problem of the occupation of lands which cause inter-community conflicts, especially in the zones where populations fear the balkanization of the country, as well as the postponement of local elections.

-0- PANA KON/TBM/MSA/VAO 2March2020