“It’s worrisome because we’ve had military operations in the DRC,” he said. “This is a prelude to what I believe will be military operations in the area,” Musavali told Al Jazeera.
Kambale Musavali, analyst at Centre for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa, said it looked increasingly likely the government would send in more troops to the two affected regions, where government troops and United Nations peacekeepers have struggled to contain the violence. He did not say what steps would be taken next under the state of siege. Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has declared a “state of siege” over the escalating violence in the eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu.Ī surge in attacks by armed groups and intercommunal fighting in the DRC’s east have killed more than 300 people since the start of the year, deepening a humanitarian and displacement crisis in the mineral-rich territory.Īnnouncing Tshisekedi’s decision late on Friday, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said: “The objective is to swiftly end the insecurity which is killing our fellow citizens in that part of the country on a daily basis.”
