DR Congo’s Fayulu says Tshisekedi wants to cling to power ‘at any cost’

Opposition stalwart Martin Fayulu on Friday accused the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi of wanting to stay in power beyond the maximum two mandates “at any cost”.

In power since 2019, Tshisekedi is due to step down as leader of the corruption- and conflict-riddled country in 2028 after hitting the two-term limit — which the Congolese constitution insists cannot be revised.

While Tshisekedi told the press on Wednesday that he had “not solicited a third term”, the 62-year-old said he would accept doing so “if the people wish”.

“Mr. Tshisekedi’s statements had the aim of announcing that he wants to remain in power at any cost,” said Fayulu, whose supporters believe he should have won the elections of December 2018 instead of Tshisekedi.

Despite that explicit ban on tinkering with the length and maximum number of presidential mandates, a bill making its way through the Congolese parliament aims to allow the president to revise those iron-clad clauses in the event of “major dysfunction” paralysing the institutions of the state, after a referendum.

Fayulu, who also came third in the contested 2023 vote, branded the bill a “subterfuge designed to allow Mr. Felix Tshisekedi to carry out a real constitutional coup d’etat”.

Tshisekedi had likewise mooted on Wednesday a potential postponement of the 2028 election if the conflict in the eastern DRC, where the Rwanda-backed M23 militia has seized swathes of territory, were to drag on.

Though the DRC and Rwanda signed a deal aimed at ending the long-running conflict in December on the insistence of US President Donald Trump, the agreement has failed to put a halt to the clashes in the mineral-rich east.

Speaking to AFP, Fayulu insisted that Tshisekedi was “taking advantage of this situation to avoid organising elections”.

The Washington deal included an economic portion aiming to secure access to the DRC’s vast reserves of strategic minerals for US businesses.

On Friday, Tshisekedi insisted that “the Americans have demanded we make certain reforms”, which he said “could not be done without revising the constitution”.

“The United States cannot prevent the Congolese people from wielding its sovereignty,” Fayulu told AFP.

“We will do everything” to prevent Tshisekedi “from serving a third term”, he added.