The majority of participants of a three-day meeting in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s parliament have voted to lift military rule in two eastern provinces deeply affected by long-raging insecurity.
The state of siege, where military authority replaced civil rule, was put in place by the central government in May 2021 with an aim of fighting armed groups operating in Ituri and North Kivu provinces.
But a recent report to the UN Security Council by Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week said the situation has become worse in the two provinces, where about four million people have been displaced.
“The state of siege brought nothing to us…citizens are tired of it. Let the authority be handed back to civilians,” Béatrice Nyiramugeyo, an MP who participated in the meeting, told the BBC Great Lakes.
UN-backed Radio Okapi quoted MP Fabrice Adenonga as saying that 195 of 196 participants of the consultative meeting that ended on Wednesday voted in favour of lifting the state of siege.
It is now up to President Félix Tshisekedi to “eventually react” on the matter, government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya told a press conference in the capital, Kinshasa.
BBC/Jide Johnson.
