Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the U.N.-funded Radio Okapi have been unavailable since the morning of Nov. 5, hours before a banned protest against President Joseph Kabila’s plan to stay in power beyond the end of his mandate this year.
In a statement released late on Monday, the US said it was “deeply troubled” by the radio signal outages, which it called a “government infringement on press freedoms and the Congolese people’s access to information”.
“Press freedoms and the right to assemble peacefully are essential components of democracy,” the statement added.
The DR Congo government has not commented on the outages, which France has also called “unacceptable”. RFI is often cut off during a protest but outages usually last only one day and it is rare for other stations to be affected.
The DR Congo has been hit by a wave of protests against President Joseph Kabila, aiming to force him to step down at the end of his term in December as required by the constitution.
The country’s opposition has accused Kabila of plotting to cling on to power by delaying the elections.
The electoral authority has however said it is not possible to hold the elections in November as scheduled, citing logistical challenges.
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