Tensions high in DRC ahead of poll

October 26, 2006

Sunday's run-off vote between president Joseph Kabila and his vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba is meant to be the final step in a protracted process to bring peace and stability to the Democratic Republic of Congo. But clashes between the well-armed supporters of the rival candidates have brought campaigning to an end amid fears that the election will provoke fresh fighting in the DRC. A five year war that sucked in the DRC's neighbours and which killed an estimated four million people ended in 2003, but the vast country that forms the heart of Africa remains ruined and dangerously divided.