Will Congo’s President Push a Third Term?

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief. The highlights this week: The Congolese opposition pushes back against a new bill that could extend President Felix Tshisekedi’s time in office, a South Sudanese whistleblower is abducted in Nairobi, and Washington cuts funding for HIV and AIDS treatment in South Africa. Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief. The highlights this week: The Congolese opposition pushes back against a new bill that could extend President Felix Tshisekedi’s time in office, a South Sudanese whistleblower is abducted in Nairobi, and Washington cuts funding for HIV and AIDS treatment in South Africa. Violent clashes erupted between protesters and state security forces earlier this month in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over a bill that could create a pathway for a third term for President Felix Tshisekedi. At least one protester was reportedly killed and at least 38 others injured, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office. A broad alliance of opposition parties, known as the Article 64 Coalition for the Defense of Constitutional Order (C64), organized the June 12 demonstrations and has planned further protests on July 8. It has denounced the bill, which Parliament ended up adopting last week, as an attempt by Tshisekedi to remain in power. Currently, Congo’s constitution allows presidents to serve a maximum of two five-year terms. The bill, however, permits a constitutional overhaul through a national referendum if state institutions face “major dysfunction.” Any new constitution would also effectively reset Tshisekedi’s time in office, allowing him to serve a third term as if it were his first. The bill still awaits the president’s signature. “I have not asked for a third term, but I tell you this: If the people want me to have a third term, I will accept,” Tshisekedi said at a press conference in May. His second term is set to end in 2028. Congo’s Catholic bishops, who hold considerable political influence, warned on Saturday that the bill risks plunging the country further into instability. Members of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo said that they see “neither the necessity, nor the urgency, nor the appropriateness” of changing the constitution, arguing that Congolese leaders should instead seek to foster peace. “In a context where political rivalries increasingly take on ethnic and tribal dimensions, the outbreak of another civil war is a real possibility,” the bishops added. Delly Sesanga, a member of the C64 coalition and the leader of opposition party Envol, welcomed the bishops’ statement. “Touching the constitutional pact today is deliberately adding a political crisis to an already existential security crisis,” he said. Congo faces multiple threats, including a new Ebola outbreak in its east, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized cities and mines. More than 260 people are confirmed to have died from the rare Bundibugyo strain spreading in three eastern provinces. In September, former Congolese President Joseph Kabila was sentenced to death in absentia for various crimes, including treason, after he visited Goma, the Congolese city then-recently captured by M23 rebels. Kabila claimed that he wanted to help find a solution to the fighting, but Tshisekedi’s government accused him of colluding with M23. Kabila himself overstayed his final term in office by two years. Tensions have also simmered throughout Tshisekedi’s tenure. His coalition, the Sacred Union of the Nation, dominates Parliament: It commands 454 of the 500 seats in the National Assembly and 95 of the 108 seats in the Senate. Yet Tshisekedi’s reelection in 2023 was marred by allegations of voter fraud, and his administration has faced widespread accusations of silencing the opposition. In March, Human Rights Watch warned that Tshisekedi’s administration was using Congo’s National Cyber Defense Council to arrest and detain “political opponents on dubious grounds.” The group said it had documented around 17 people who were “forcibly disappeared or reported missing” between July 2025 and this March. Tshisekedi has loosely attempted to link a critical minerals-for-peace deal signed with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to his own efforts to change the constitution. The deal gives the United States preferential access on mining in exchange for U.S. security support. “The Americans have asked us to implement certain reforms in the justice system,” Tshisekedi said. “These reforms cannot be carried out without revising the constitution.” While experts largely agree that Congo needs judicial reforms to combat state repression, changing the constitution is expected to primarily expand Tshisekedi’s power. As Michelle Gavin recently wrote for the Council on Foreign Relations. “No matter how much American officials may wish to pretend that they have nothing to do with governance choices abroad, leaders with dubious mandates wish to project somethin

Will Congo’s President Push a Third Term?

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