Don't pay DRC taxes, utility bills: rights group

Kinshasa - A pro-democracy group in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday urged citizens to stop paying taxes and utility bills in a "civil disobedience" campaign, after authorities announced President Joseph Kabila will remain in power until 2019.

The Lucha (Struggle for Change) organisation called on the Congolese to quit paying bills for electricity and water as well as "the taxes, fees, royalties and licences of all the state services."

The movement, based in Goma, the capital of the troubled North Kivu province, also announced a "final assault" on November 28 when it hopes people will "completely block the country, and keep it up until the fall of the Kabila regime".

Lucha's call came the day after DRC's election commission announced that much delayed elections to replace Kabila would take place in late December 2018, but the opposition demanded the longtime leader step down sooner.

The Congolese opposition responded by saying the timeframe was not acceptable, insisting that Kabila quits by the end of this year.

Tensions have been running high in the central African nation since Kabila failed to step down on the expiry of his second and final term last December.