(PHOTO: Etienne Tshisekedi and wife Maman Marthe Kasalu stumping at the Stade des Martyrs in Kinshasa, Tuesday August 9, 2011)
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Kinshasa daily tabloid La Prospérité published today a press release issued on January 30 by Joseph Kapika, UDPS spokesman, announcing that opposition leader and self-proclaimed DRC president Etienne Tshisekedi is about to embark on a fortnight private "prayer and work visit" to Washington, DC.
The press release doesn't mention the names of those who've extended the invitation to the eighty-one-year-old mercurial pol, the tabloid notes.
The press release states that:
"The President and the retinue that accompanies him will leave Kinshasa on Sunday, February 2, 2014 aboard a regularly scheduled commercial flight of Air France. The delegation will depart from the French capital on Monday, February 3, to Washington where it will arrive on Tuesday, February 4."
Tshisekedi's "retinue" includes his wife and longtime aide Marthe Kasalu and Albert Moleka, his chief of staff.
The tabloid also notes that the return of Tshisekedi in Kinshasa on February 16 coincides with the anniversary of the 1992 Christians' demo violently broken up by
Mobutu's security forces.
In Kinshasa, the anniversary has since turned into a flashpoint of violent demonstrations and counter-demonstrations by opposition and pro-regime supporters with heavy-handed interventions by riot cops.
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PHOTO CREDITS: Photo by John Bompengo via radiookapi.net
