DRC: Activities of Kabila’s PPRD and Twelve Other Parties Banned Nationwide

Congolese Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani ordered on October 15 a nationwide ban on the activities of Joseph Kabila’s PPRD and twelve other political parties. He instructed provincial governors to implement the measure immediately and report back. The document gives no reasons, duration, or legal basis for the ban, and does not dissolve the parties. The decision comes three days after the announcement in Goma of the creation of the Front for the Refoundation of the Nation, chaired by Kabila, though the ministry’s message does not refer to it.