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Violence Mars Congo Election Campaign, Two Candidates Killed

by Reuters

   Beni, Congo --

   Two candidates running for parliament in the Democratic Republic of
   Congo's December 20 general election were killed in separate incidents
   Friday, as a rights group warned in a report Saturday that electoral
   violence risks undermining the vote.

   A candidate for the ruling coalition in the South Kivu province in the
   eastern Congo region was killed by unknown gunmen while he was
   returning from a campaign event Friday evening, a regional government
   official told Reuters.

   Another ruling coalition candidate in Beni, in the North Kivu province,
   also in eastern Congo, died from gunshot wounds late Friday night after
   his campaign convoy was ambushed, Jeremie Muhindo, director of the Beni
   hospital, told Reuters.

   Congo will vote in a general election next week. Alongside the
   violence, opposition parties and independent observers have warned that
   issues including illegible voter cards, blocked campaign plans and
   electoral list delays threaten the legitimacy of the results.

   Election-related violence risks undermining the election, said Human
   Rights Watch in a report on Saturday.

   "Since early October, Human Rights Watch has documented clashes across
   the country between supporters of rival political parties that have
   resulted in assaults, sexual violence and at least one death," the
   report said.

   It added that the violence was coming from both supporters of the
   ruling coalition as well as supporters of opposition parties, and said
   incidents continue to be reported.

   An evangelical church, the Church of Christ in Congo, said in a
   statement Friday its temple in the capital Kinshasa was vandalized
   during violent clashes between supporters of an opposition politician
   and those of the ruling coalition.

   In a separate incident unrelated to the election, at least 11 civilians
   -- including six women -- were decapitated in an attack on a village in
   Ituri province Friday, a deputy mayor said. The attack has been blamed
   on militants linked to the Islamic State-affiliated Allied Democratic
   Forces, which operates in the eastern Congo region.

   "There was a funeral in the village. The assailants surprised the
   victims while they were gathered. Eleven people were killed, others had
   managed to escape," Katembo Salamu, deputy mayor of Mangina
   municipality in Ituri, told Reuters.