1st August, 2018
Democratic Republic of Comgo(DRC) opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba arrived in the Congolese capital Kinshasa on Wednesday to submit his candidacy for president after a decade in prison in The Hague, a Reuters witness said.
Thousands of supporters in T-shirts, hats and scarves bearing Bemba’s face were gathered inside and
around Kinshasa’s N’djili Airport, where his private airplane touched down around 9.30 a.m. (0830 GMT).
Bemba, whose war crimes conviction at the International Criminal Court (ICC) was quashed on appeal in
May, tweeted a photo of himself boarding his private jet early on Wednesday.
He was expected to arrive in Kinshasa around 9 a.m. (0800 GMT).
“The Congolese people have waited for this moment for a long time,” said Toussaint Bodongo, one of about 300 members of Bemba’s MLC party waiting for him at Kinshasa’s N’djili airport.
“Bemba will maybe bring the solution that we need to Congo.”
Bemba’s return is expected to energise opposition to President Joseph Kabila, who has been in power
since his father’s assassination in 2001 and is barred by constitutional term limits from standing
for a new term in December’s election.
But Kabila has refused to commit publicly to not contesting the election.
That has kept the country in suspense over whether he will choose someone else to represent his ruling coalition, paving the way for Congo’s first democratic transition, or try to run again and risk a violent backlash.