2019 Photo Contest, General News, 2nd Prize

A Fight for Democracy

Photographer

John Wessels

Agence France-Presse

12 January, 2018

A man attends a church service at Kinshasa cathedral to commemorate victims of a crackdown on a New Year’s Eve protest calling for President Kabila’s resignation. At least eight people had been killed during the security force operation on a march organized by the church.

Long-delayed general elections to find a successor to President Joseph Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were finally held on 30 December. The run-up was marked by protests, street rallies and clashes between opposition supporters and police. Elections had been repeatedly postponed since President Kabila’s mandate expired in 2016. The election was won by Felix Tshisekedi, leader of DRC’s largest opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS). The result was disputed by rival parties, but welcomed internationally as the first peaceful transfer of power since Congo’s independence in 1960.

About the photographer

John Wessels

John Wessels was born in Johannesburg in 1987. He started his photojournalism career in 2014. He is currently based in Dakar, Senegal, and is the chief photographer in West Afric...

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/60
Focal length
28 mm
F-Stop
f/2.8
ISO
1600
Camera
Canon EOS 5D Mark III

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