I am getting worried about Kinshasa and DR Congo.

My coworker in DC asked me whether I had been hearing the reports of vote counting and speculation, which of course I have, though I haven't been dutifully posting.  Sorry.  The way I figure it, it will be much closer than the first vote, because although Kabila only garnered 44 point something percent back in July/August, and Bemba only had 20 something percent, the other folks who received votes are not in the running this time.  And most of those votes were in Bemba territory, so he could conceivably garner a lot of support from that sector.

A friend of mine said that the "p" word had been invoked at a staff meeting.  There have been two bad pillages that were connected to the war in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  People were killed, properties destroyed and looted.  That is certainly a fear now in Kinshasa. 

Results may be announced as early as this Thursday, and people who are still planning to leave are worried about flight availability.

One of my friends said this in an email today:

And this evening on my way to __ to meet up with __ I saw a soldier get out of an unmarked purple landrover to fish a baton out of his boot, which he used to lay into every taxi driver he could reach from his passenger window all the down from Kintambo to the Socimat/ABC round about - unbelievable, but true! The roads were packed - 2 lane traffic to Kintambo and 1 lane of traffic going back into town. 

Most expat staff has left, and if they haven't, their families have.  The UN agencies told their employees that if they didn't send dependents out by x date (prior to the 29 October voting), then they bore sole responsibility for them if something were to happen.

Also, some of the people working on one of our projects in central DR Congo said that they would not be able to get out to the field just now due to violence in one region.

In the east last week, they even had to reschedule voting in a couple of districts where there had been violence.

EDIT: Here is a link to a news bit that I meant to post as well - DR Congo gets partial poll result