UN Security Council met behind closed doors Friday to discuss the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as world powers awaited results.
The meeting came even as the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR) termed the post-election environment in the DRC as “calm but tense” as the country waits for the results of the presidential poll.
The result of the poll, which featured 21 candidates, is due to be announced on Sunday, although the DRC’s electoral commission announced that this may be pushed back.
“What my colleagues have told me, and they have observed is that the situation remains calm but tense ahead of the announcement of the results of the election,” OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said.
“There are preliminary reports of some pockets of violence and people being injured,” she added.
The poll will decide the successor to President Joseph Kabila, who came to office in 2001 after the previous incumbent, his father, was assassinated in the aftermath of a civil war involving numerous armed militias.
Meanwhile the U.S has deployed military personnel to Gabon as the world awaits presidential election results from the DRC.
President Donald Trump says they will protect U.S. citizens and diplomatic facilities in Congo’s capital Kinshasa.
In the run up to the election, the U.S embassy in Kinshasa had warned of a possible attack, urging its citizens to remain vigilant.
