DRC: $100,000 given to Mukwege for his presidential candidacy

Coming in numbers to his hospital in Bukavu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, members of civil society (women’s associations, local organizations, unions) gave him a check for the amount of the deposit necessary for be able to run for president.

Banners read: “Dr Denis Mukwege, the Congolese people want you”.

The region has been plagued by violence by armed groups, gang rapes and genital mutilation for almost 30 years.

Nobel Peace Prize winner for his action in favor of raped women, Denis Mukwege, 68, has not said whether he would be a candidate.

“I know all the suffering that our population experiences on a daily basis, (that this) population is capable of contributing $100,000 for me, that simply means that you are not going to go back. You are determined to be a free people, you want to be independent”he told his supporters.

“When the people decide to take power, there is no system that can oppose” to him, he added.

One of the critical voices of the regime of President Félix Tshisekedi, Dr. Mukwege once again vilified the diplomacy of the head of state, accusing him in particular of having called on armies from East Africa to confront the rebellion of M23 which, with the support of Rwanda according to numerous sources, seized large areas of North Kivu.

“We are already balkanized (…) the Burundians control the entire Ruzizi plain up to the High Plateau,” the regions of “Rutshuru, Beni, Ituri are under the control of the Ugandans, the Kenyans also control all our banks today,” he said.

The single-round presidential election is scheduled for December 20. Mr. Tshisekedi, president since January 2019, is a candidate for a second five-year term. Candidates for the supreme office have until October 8 to register.

The political climate is tense three months before the election. Prosecutions and arrests of opposition members and journalists are increasing in the country. At least three journalists have been arrested or detained in recent days.