President Joseph Kabila in his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday confirmed that presidential, legislative and provincial elections will take place on December 23, 2018. To this end, the activities planned in the timetable drawn up by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) have been respected, and everything would be done to ensure “credible and peaceful” elections, he declared.Kabila also stated his government’s determination to finance the entire electoral process alone, denouncing “the blatant interference of certain governments in matters that are undoubtedly part of the domestic politics of states.”

Kabila also reiterated his government’s demand for the “effective and substantial departure” of UN forces from the DR Congo because of their largely mitigated operational results,” 20 years after their deployment.

He also denounced “the fact that the fauna and flora of countries holding large forest areas only serve as ornaments under the pretext of constituting the lungs of humanity, if not as repairers of the environmental damage caused by northern industries, while at the same time there appears to be no real desire to allocate significant compensation to the populations of the countries concerned despite the commitments made many times, but never kept.”