...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
's capital, Kinshasa, to pay tribute to Etienne Tshisekedi, a late iconic opposition leader and father of the country's current president.
The body of Tshisekedi, who died in Belgium in February 2017 at the age of 84, lay in state on Friday in the 80,000 capacity Martyrs' Stadium after being repatriated the evening before.
The ceremony was hosted by Tshisekedi's son, Felix, who was elected to the DRC's presidency in a December ballot and had long vowed to bury his father's remains at home. Among those in attendance were Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Angolan and Republic of Congo counterparts, Joao Lourenco and Denis Sassou Nguesso.
The return of Tshisekedi's body, which will be buried on Saturday, was consistently blocked by his son's predecessor and former longtime leader, Joseph Kabila.
Supporters of Tshisekedi said he was so potent a threat to the former president, of whom he was a vociferous critic, that even his corpse had to remain abroad.