2023-12-24 11:45:00
“It was around 3:00 a.m. (local) that this gentleman threw himself into the void after a telephone conversation. He died instantly,” an occupant of the Hilton hotel in Kinshasa told the ACP. The witness was in the bar at the time.
“The deceased man was a computer expert of Belgian nationality who was detained as part of the EU election observation mission in the DRC,” a European diplomat, who requested anonymity, told the ACP. .
Presidential election in the DRC: chaos, confusion, discontent in the face of a frankly fraudulent process
The source also refused to give the name of this expert, believing “that it is up to the family or the mission to provide this important information.”
The Congolese prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on Sunday to determine whether it was a crime or suicide.
“The second hypothesis is preferred,” at least two European diplomatic sources in Kinshasa told the ACP.
“Before throwing himself into the void, the Belgian had left a voice message for his daughter,” a source close to the investigation told the ACP, received in Brussels.
The EU refused to accredit an election observation mission in the DRC because of restrictions imposed by the authorities on the deployment of its communications equipment, according to several sources contacted.
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Since then, the mission has reduced its presence by deploying a few experts to Kinshasa “for security reasons”.
The DRC organized its 4th pluralist electoral cycle after the elections of 2006, 2011 and 2018. The Independent National Electoral Commission (Céni) is gradually publishing the electoral results of the presidential election, the organization of which is considered satisfactory despite some logistical hiccups and cases of violence which will not go “unpunished”, according to its rapporteur Patricia Seya.
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