Protests Grip DR Congo as Tshisekedi Eyes Third Term Amid Mounting Crises

Security forces fired tear gas and arrested demonstrators across the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, September 16, as protests against President Félix Tshisekedi’s proposed constitutional changes escalated into some of the most sustained unrest the country has seen in months. The country is already stretched thin by a record breaking Ebola outbreak, an entrenched conflict over its mineral rich mining regions, and a humanitarian emergency that the United Nations has repeatedly described as among the most severe and neglected in the world.

At least ten people were arrested in Kinshasa when police responded with tear gas in a demonstration organised by opposition parties under the banner of the C64 coalition.  Clashes broke out between opposition supporters and pro-government counter demonstrators, with additional demonstrations reported in Lubumbashi, a major mining hub in the south east, and in Mbandaka and Kindu, where activists defied local bans on public gatherings.

Local authorities had banned the protests before they began, but demonstrators in several cities turned out regardless, prompting security forces to disperse crowds that had assembled anyway.

At the centre of the unrest is a package of proposed constitutional changes that critics say is designed to clear the way for Tshisekedi to seek a third term in office. The Congolese constitution currently limits presidents to two five-year terms. Tshisekedi, first elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2023, is constitutionally required to leave office when his second term ends in 2028.

In June, Congo’s parliament, where Tshisekedi’s coalition holds a majority, adopted a bill allowing constitutional amendments to be put to a national referendum. Lawmakers aligned with the president have since backed changes that opposition figures argue would effectively open the door to him remaining in power beyond 2028. Tshisekedi has not committed to signing the measure into law, but has stopped short of ruling out a third term bid, saying he has “not asked for a third term” but would accept one “if the people want” it.

The opposition, led by the C64 coalition, has rejected that framing. Since June, the group has organised repeated rounds of demonstrations demanding that Tshisekedi abandon the constitutional push altogether, and in July some opposition leaders went further, calling for his resignation outright. The Catholic Church, an influential institution in Congolese public life, has also publicly condemned the proposed changes. The political standoff is unfolding against a backdrop of overlapping crises that makes the timing of the constitutional push especially fraught.

Foremost among them is the Ebola epidemic gripping the country. The DRC is in the midst of its largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, driven by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus. Declared on 15 May 2026 after cases were confirmed in Ituri province, the outbreak has since spread to at least six provinces, including North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut Uele, Tshopo and Bas Uele. By the end of August, confirmed cases had surpassed 6,000, with more than 2,900 deaths, according to the DRC Ministry of Communication and Media, figures that make it the worst Ebola outbreak in the country’s history and the second deadliest ever recorded globally, behind only the 2014 to 2016 West Africa outbreak.

The country’s mining regions in the east are facing a long running armed conflict that shows no sign of resolution. The Rwanda backed M23 rebel group, one of more than 100 armed groups active in eastern Congo, has seized control of some of the country’s most valuable mineral deposits, including the Rubaya mine in North Kivu, which produces up to 30 percent of the world’s coltan, a mineral essential to electronics manufacturing. UN experts have accused M23 of running a parallel administration in captured mining areas, issuing digging permits and taxing production, while funnelling tens of thousands of tonnes of coltan, tin and tantalum to Rwanda each year. Despite a ceasefire agreement reached between Congo and Rwanda in June as part of a US brokered peace framework, fighting has continued in parts of North and South Kivu.

The combined toll of conflict, disease and displacement has produced one of the world’s most severe and persistently underfunded humanitarian crises. An estimated 14.9 million people, including 8 million children, are expected to need humanitarian assistance in the DRC in 2026, according to UNICEF, while more than 5.8 million people remain internally displaced, the vast majority in the conflict affected provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri.

The government’s final decision on whether to go ahead with the referendum bill will largely influence the next election in 2028.