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A10 WORLD NEWS
Friday 28 december 2018

Congo election unrest spikes; EU ambassador ordered to leave

By AL-HADJI KUDRA Kinshasa, destroyed voting
MALIRO materials. Congo’s some 40
SALEH MWANAMILONGO million registered voters will
MATHILDE BOUSSION decide the fate of a vast
Associated Press country that is rich in the
BENI, Congo (AP) — Con- mineral wealth central to
go’s march toward Sun- smartphones and electric
day’s election took a nasty cars but desperately poor
turn on Thursday as the in infrastructure and basic
government ordered the services. First, though, they
European Union ambas- have to make it to the polls.
sador to leave the country Thursday’s protest in Beni
within 48 hours after the occurred a day after Con-
EU prolonged sanctions go’s electoral commission
against the ruling party’s announced that voting
presidential candidate. would be delayed until
Elsewhere, police fired March for Beni and Butem-
live ammunition and tear bo city because of the
gas to disperse more than Ebola outbreak. The rest
100 people protesting an of the country still votes on
election delay in the east, Sunday, with “definitive”
blamed on a deadly Eb- results announced on Jan.
ola outbreak, that means Protesters set up a barricade in the Eastern Congolese town of Beni Thursday Dec. 27, 2018. 15 and the inauguration
more than 1 million votes Associated Press three days later.
will not count. Protesters continue to wield power ly” to recall its envoy. erica Mogherini to lift the Opposition candidates
set up blazing street barri- behind the scenes. The EU last year sanctioned sanctions, even for a “pro- call the delay a ploy to
cades and some attacked The foreign minister’s order, Shadary, a former inte- bationary period.” hurt their chances in ar-
an Ebola response center, seen by The Associated rior minister, for obstruct- There was no immediate eas where sentiment has
with more than 20 patients Press, called the EU am- ing Congo’s electoral pro- comment from the EU am- turned against the ruling
fleeing. bassador’s comportment cess and for a crackdown bassador, Bart Ouvry. Con- party in recent years. The
The opposition accuses the “reprehensible” and came against protesters angry go has resisted what it con- opposition coalition behind
government of trying to after weeks of pressure by over the long-delayed siders international med- presidential candidate
ensure that the preferred Congo’s government to vote. It was meant to be dling in the election, vow- Martin Fayulu has called
candidate of departing have the EU sanctions lifted held in late 2016. ing to fund the vote itself. for a “ghost town” strike
President Joseph Kabila is on Emmanuel Ramazani The EU this month prolonged Western observer groups throughout Congo on Fri-
elected, with many Con- Shadary. The order asks the the asset freeze and travel are notably absent. day.
golese believing Kabila will European Council “urgent- ban against Shadary, and The election delays have The reasons given for the
more than a dozen other led to sometimes deadly latest delay aren’t cred-
people, days after Congo protests. The latest post- ible, Fayulu told the AP. He
Foreign Minister Leonard ponement pushed the vote called on all Congolese
She Okitundu pleaded with from Dec. 23 to Sunday to remain calm and vote
EU foreign policy chief Fed- after a fire in the capital, without violence.q

China ex-deputy intelligence chief

given life sentence

Associated Press security bureau to threaten
BEIJING (AP) — China’s and pressure individuals to
former deputy intelligence hand over their shares to
chief was sentenced Thurs- Guo.
day to life in prison for cor- Separately, Ma also ob-
ruption. tained insider information
Ma Jian has been found about the same company
guilty of crimes including whose shares his relatives
accepting bribes and in- later purchased, resulting in
sider trading, said a court profits of more than 49 mil-
in the northeastern port city lion yuan ($7.2 million).
of Dalian. In this image made from Dec. Ma is the latest top official
The court said in a state- 27, 2018, CCTV video, China’s to be ensnared in Chinese
ment online that Ma used former deputy intelligence President Xi Jinping’s ban-
his political power to aid chief Ma Jian appears in a ner anti-corruption cam-
the business operations of courtroom in the northeastern paign, which he launched
Guo Wengui, a real estate port city of Dalian, China. shortly after taking power in
Associated Press
billionaire wanted by Chi- 2012.
nese authorities. upper echelons of China’s Xi pledged to take down
The New York-based Guo ruling Communist Party. both high-level “tigers” and
has published a slew of Guo gained control of a low-level “flies” in a drive to
online videos in which he national securities com- purge the ruling Commu-
makes sensational allega- pany after Ma sent letters nist Party of rampant cor-
tions of corruption in the addressed from the state ruption. q