We ask Lambert Mende, the DR Congo's communications minister, about recent protests against postponed elections.

Just how democratic is the Democratic Republic of Congo?

President Joseph Kabila's term expired in 2016, and yet he is still in office, with elections postponed twice and now announced for December 2018.

Since 2016, more than 100 people have been killed in protests demanding Kabila step down and elections take place.

Congo's Minister of Communications, Lambert Mende, says the reported numbers of those killed is a "lie".

"Do you think that there is any country in this central Africa, this part of the continent, where people can demonstrate freely as in the Democratic Republic of Congo," says Mende. "There have been confrontations between terrorist elements and our soldiers."

In this week's Headliner, we speak with the Congolese Minister of Communications Lambert Mende about violence in the country and whether elections will be held this year.

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Source: Al Jazeera News