Ethnic violence in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai region has spiralled out of control with the complicity of the government and could be exploited to postpone national elections, a senior UN human rights official said on Friday (August 4).

“Whether or not the government is instigating this specifically to postpone elections is impossible to determine,” Scott Campbell, head of Central and West Africa at the UN human rights office, told a UN briefing in Geneva.

“Our concern is that this could be manipulated for a postponement of elections which could make make other types of violence and human rights violations (more likely).”