Special Envoy for the African Great Lakes, Danae Dholakia, said:

The British Government is concerned by widespread reports of the arrest and intimidation of people carrying out political activity in Lubumbashi, Kinshasa, and elsewhere in DRC over the last week. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in DRC has recently expressed similar concerns. The Congolese people must be allowed to express their political views freely in accordance with the law if an agreed solution is to be found to the current political impasse. We call on the DRC government to uphold the rights guaranteed by the Congolese Constitution and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.