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C B C . C A N e w s - F u l l S t o r y : In the lead-up to Congo's first democratic election in more than 40 years, a violent riot has left at least five dead in the capital Kinshasa.
A mob attacked and killed a soldier on Thursday who reportedly fired into a crowd close to a campaign rally for candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. Crowds of people ran through the streets, torching and looting buildings. The United Nations said two police officers were killed in the mayhem, and Bemba's officials reported three civilians died. Before the rally, a fire ruined a section of Bemba's compound, killing two children inside. Ross Mountain, deputy UN special representative for Congo, said Sunday's elections are still expected to proceed. "We deplore these incidents. But you know it could have been worse … and here we are the next day and Kinshasa is calm," Mountain told a news conference. About 30 people have died in politically related violence during the campaign. On Friday, people walked more than 30 kilometres to register to vote, which didn't surprise Montreal native Vanessa Kent, a UN political officer in the country. "They're people like everyone else," she told the CBC. "They want to have a job, they want to send their kids to school and they want to sleep at night feeling safe and up until now they haven't always been able to feel that way." Former leader the frontrunner Many people in Congo are hopeful that the election, the first since the country gained independence from Belgium in 1960, will end widespread corruption. President Joseph Kabila, who led the country following the back-to-back civil wars from 1998 to 2003, is widely seen as the frontrunner. About 25 million voters are expected to cast ballots for 33 presidential, 9,000 national legislative and 10,000 provincial assembly candidates on Sunday. About 60,000 Congolese police will guard the 50,000 polling stations set up across the country. The United Nations has deployed 17,000 peacekeepers to Congo, the largest mission of its kind in the world, to protect voters. At a cost of $460 million US, the mission is the most expensive of its kind ever mounted.
With files from the Associated Press |