DR Congo election postponed to Dec 30

A man practices using an electronic voting machine in Gombe Municipality of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. The election will take place on December 30, 2018. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Voting machines were destroyed in a warehouse fire
  • DRC is in the grip of a two-year-old crisis over elections

Long-delayed elections due to be held in DR Congo on Sunday will be postponed by a week after voting machines were destroyed in a warehouse fire, the country's electoral board said Thursday.

"The presidential, legislative and provincial elections will therefore take place on December 30, 2018," the head of the Independent National Election Commission (CENI), Mr Corneille Nangaa, told the press.

The sprawling central African country is in the grip of a two-year-old crisis over elections for a successor to President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001.