The big-read
It's a toss up: Kabila's all-out cling to power
DRC president plans to say for third term, critics fear
Joseph Kabila, the Democratic Republic of Congo's president, typically avoids public speaking. But on Tuesday, he addressed both the National Assembly and Senate in a hastily arranged speech which was broadcast to the nation. Cheered on by devotees, Kabila recalled the state of the country he inherited from his father in 2001 - divided, indebted, at war. He then turned to the fruits of his stewardship, defined as peace, democracy and economic growth. Such were the self-congratulatory foundations on which the president built the message he'd come to deliver. It was aimed at those of his opponents who still refuse to accept that Kabila won't step down on December 19, the last day of his second, and under the constitution, final term. Unambiguously in Kabila's crosshairs was the Rassemblement, a large opposition coalition led by Etienne Tshisekedi, an 83-year-old veteran who's been nuisancing Congolese presidents for more than three decades. The election to select Kabila's successor, w...
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