African leaders to meet on the DRC voting dispute

Fayulu appealed against the result, saying it was an "electoral coup" forged behind the scenes between Tshisekedi and outgoing president Joseph Kabila, who has been in power since 2001.

The dispute has raised fears that the country's political crisis, which broke out two years ago when Kabila refused to resign at the end of her constitutional mandate, could worsen.

The Thursday meeting at the UA office in Ethiopia was convened by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, chairman of the body until next month, spokesman Ebba Kalondo said.

"The initiative is part of Africa's efforts to help political stakeholders and DRC people successfully conclude the electoral process," he told AFP.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced his presence on Twitter, although it is unclear what other leaders will join him.

The summit comes as accusations of fraud.

The influential Roman Catholic Church, which claims to have deployed 40,000 observers to monitor the election, said the official result does not reflect the true outcome, holding back from saying who it thinks has won.

Thousands of electoral documents, leaked to international media including the Financial Times and Radio France Internationale (RFI), have supported Fayulu's request to be the real electoral winner.

Vast and unstable, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has never had a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

It became a battlefield for two regional wars in 1996-97 and 1998-2003, and the last two presidential elections, in 2006 and 2011, were marked by bloody clashes.

Now the country's highest court is eight days since Fayulu's appeal was filed January 11 to issue a verdict.

AFP