European Union withdraws from DRC election observation mission

The European Union announced that it had canceled its electoral observation mission for the December 20 general elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It said it would not be able to deploy people across the country for security reasons.

“Due to technical constraints beyond the control of the EU, we are forced to cancel the EU election observation mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the EU said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The EU mission had planned to deploy long-term observers in most provinces of the DRC, but this is now no longer possible,” it said.

The EU said it was exploring other options with the Congolese authorities, including the possibility of maintaining a mission of electoral experts to observe the electoral process from the capital.