KINSHASA (Reuters) – A cover overhanging a stage built for Pope Francis in a Kinshasa stadium collapsed overnight during a heavy storm, Congo authorities said on Monday, three days before he’s because of appear there for a public event.
Francis is scheduled to reach within the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday afternoon and address young people and catechists within the Martyrs’ Stadium in Kinshasa, the capital, on Thursday morning.
The cover was being fixed on Monday, Kinshasa police chief Sylvano Kasongo told Reuters.
“It is the structure and the gyproc (plasterboard) decoration that collapsed but the rostrum remains to be in place and work is underway to get every little thing back so as,” he said.
Heavy rain and powerful winds are usually not unusual in Kinshasa.
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Pictures posted on social media showed one side of the cover resting on the stage while the opposite side was still aloft.
Reporters weren’t allowed into the stadium on Monday. Troops from the Garde Republicaine, an elite military unit answerable for protecting the Congolese president and state institutions, were guarding it throughout the repairs.
Interior minister Daniel Aselo Okito visited the stadium on Monday as a part of a tour of venues that may host the pope, and said in an announcement he expected the repairs to be finished in time for Thursday’s event.
(Reporting by Justin Makangara and Stanis Bujakera; Writing by Estelle Shirbon)
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