Heads of diplomatic missions accredited to the DRC met on 22 August 2016 with the dialogue facilitator Edem Kodjo and renewed their support to the latter. They hailed the decision of the Congolese government for the release of political detainees as requested by the opposition.
Door-stepped after the meeting with Kodjo, the Deputy UN Secretary General Special Representative, Mamadou Diallo, who led the diplomats’ delegation indicated “We have taken note that political stakeholders have requested that the government should take certain measures, including releasing political detainees, in order to ease tensions and trigger the dialogue”. The request was submitted to the government and certain detainees were released.
The diplomatic corps encouraged the government to continue in that right direction with a view to enabling an all-inclusive dialogue.
According to Diallo, the AU-appointed mediator informed the diplomats that the preparatory works for the dialogue will start and that significant progress was achieved.
These works are scheduled to commence on 23 August 2016, but the opposition has called for a nation-wide strike to protest, stressing that not all prisoners they wanted released had been.