Washington was accused of sparking worry by the DRC after the US embassy in Kinshasa warned of a “possible terrorist threat” against its mission in the country as it heads towards key elections.
“You have to distrust information coming from people who want to spread needless fear and uncertainty among the Congolese a few days before elections,” government spokesman Lambert Mende told AFP.
The country that is conflict-prone is expected to head to the polls on 23 December to elect a president to long-time President Joseph Kabila as well as lawmakers for its national and provincial parliaments.
“Now that the holding of three elections on December 23, 2018, is a certainty, those who have no control over the electoral process in the DRC are trying to distract the Congolese,” said Mende, who is also the country’s communications minister.
The embassy on Saturday cited “credible and specific information of a possible terrorist threat against US government facilities in Kinshasa”, which were closed on Monday.
Campaigning for the upcoming elections kicked off last Thursday and will continue till December 21.
A clause in the constitution states that the current president Joseph Kabila has to remain in power as caretaker leader despite the fact that his second and final elected term ended about two years ago.
Mende serves as spokesman for Kabila’s protégé Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, a hard-line former interior minister running to succeed him.
DRC, a poverty struck yet mineral-rich country has never experienced a peaceful transition of power since the time of its independence from Belgium which it attained in 1960.
