Congo legislative elections 2007
The legislative elections in 2007 provided a bit of welcome attention on a quiet Sunday in June. The organisation was a shambles and few people were interested in voting, and those that wanted to often couldn’t. I don’t believe participation rates have ever been released.
Kinshasa 2007
In May-June 2007 I crossed over the river to work in the adjoining capital, Kinshasa, for a month while the correspondent took his vacation. It was quite a change from sleepy old Brazzaville. There’s a big change of pace – the streets are full of people, the currency is a mix of worthless dirty francs and dollars and there’s a sizeable ex-pat community. Looking back over the river, Brazzaville (seen in one of the night-time photos) looked very small.
Kinshasa fighting, 2007
The first time I ever heard a shot fired in battle, I was walking to the American Cultural Center in Brazzaville. I thought it must have been something else, as the city seemed calm. As the day wore on it was clear what was going on – Brazzaville is on the north bank of the Congo river exactly opposite the DR Congo. The bodyguards loyal to the losing presidential candidate, Jean-Pierre Bemba, clashed with the presidential guard of Joseph Kabila. For two days the two forces fought in the centre of Kinshasa and dun of heavy weaponry was constant throughout this time. Some rockets even landed on the Brazzaville side of the river. One of my photographs of the explosions and fire was bought by AP (the Kinshasa photographers were under lock down), and made the pages of the Washington Post and Boston Globe among others.
