KINSHASSA: Delirious football fans took to the soaked streets of the capital, Kinshasa and danced into the night in the rain after the Democratic Republic of Congo reached the World Cup for the first time in 52 years. Defender Axel Tuanzebe, who plays in the Premier League for Burnley, was the hero with the only goal in a 1-0 win over Jamaica after extra time in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico on Tuesday. The central African nation will face Portugal, Colombia and Uzbekistan in Group K at the finals in North America this summer. At the 1974 finals in West Germany, the team competed as Zaire and were beaten by Scotland, Yugoslavia and Brazil. &quot;We gave it our all, right here in the rain!&quot; shouted Beni Ile, a fan in Kinshasa whose shoulders were draped in a soaked DRC flag. &quot;We won&#39;t be working on Wednesday! It&#39;s going to be a national holiday. We&#39;re going to celebrate and party all night long. &quot;We&#39;ve been waiting 50 years for this. We&#39;re staying out until dawn.&quot; It was a scene replicated across the city of 17 million people, where the final whistle in Guadalajara was greeted by a cacophony of banging pots, car horns and whistles. The win completed a dramatic qualification campaign for the team nicknamed the Leopards, who eliminated African football giants Nigeria and Cameroon on their way to Tuesday&#39;s playoff. As early as the morning of the big match, many residents of the DRC capital were already sporting the sky-blue jersey of their beloved national side. By evening, several hundred fans had gathered in a square in the city centre in anticipation of watching the game. Even as the rain bucketed down, the conclusion of the match after 120 nervy minutes was met with an outpouring of national pride and relief. It was also a rare moment of national unity in a country scarred by 30 years of conflict and the resurgence of the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group. &quot;It&#39;s truly exceptional, we are very proud of the Leopards today for this feat,&quot; said Merou, who comes from Goma, a major city in eastern DRC that fell into M23 hands in January 2025. &quot;This victory will unify the Congo. &quot;We hope the whole country will benefit from it,&quot; he added, standing in the pouring rain. Another overjoyed supporter, Maclain, said: &quot;We deserve a moment of happiness, away from the gunfire. &quot;We need to come together too.&quot;

Richard King of Jamaica is challenged by Axel Tuanzebe of Congo DR during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Play-Off tournament final match between Congo DR v Jamaica at Estadio Guadalajara on March 31, 2026, in Zapopan, Mexico. (Photo: AFP)

Football

The central African nation will face Portugal, Colombia and Uzbekistan in Group K at the finals in North America this summer.

DR Congo fans dance in the rain after sealing World Cup spot

LONDON: Britain has imposed visa restrictions on DR Congo nationals over the country&#39;s &quot;poor co-operation&quot; on returning illegal migrants, the UK government said.&nbsp;Further measures, up to a complete halt on visas, will follow unless cooperation &quot;rapidly improves&quot;, the interior ministry said in a statement late Saturday.&nbsp;The curbs mean that DR Congo VIPs and decision makers will lose preferential treatment on visas, while fast-track visa processing has been revoked for all DR Congo nationals.&nbsp;They come after Britain&#39;s Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, in November threatened DR Congo, Angola and Namibia with visa bans unless they accepted the return of irregular migrants.&nbsp;The interior ministry said the three African countries had &quot;continually frustrated&quot; efforts to remove thousands of illegal migrants and criminals.&nbsp;It said they had &quot;unacceptably poor and obstructive returns processes&quot; and accused the countries of refusing to process paperwork and requiring individuals to sign their own documents &ndash; effectively allowing them to block their own deportations.&nbsp;Angola and Namibia had, however, agreed &quot;to improve their processes&quot; and accept the return of &quot;illegal migrants and criminals&quot;, and so will not face such restrictions, the interior ministry said.&nbsp;There had been some recent engagement by the DR Congo, but Mahmood warned the Central African nation needed &quot;to play by the rules&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;If one of their citizens has no right to be here, they must take them back,&quot; she said.&nbsp;&quot;I thank Angola and Namibia and welcome their co-operation. Now is the time for the Democratic Republic of Congo to do the right thing. Take your citizens back or lose the privilege of entering our country.&quot;&nbsp;These visa measures came as part of a package of reforms Mahmood announced in November seeking to tighten up Britain&#39;s asylum rules.&nbsp;Immigration has become a bitterly divisive issue in Britain in recent years, fuelling support for the hard-right Reform UK party, which is currently well in front in opinion polls ahead of next May&#39;s local elections.

United Kingdom

Britain has imposed visa restrictions on DR Congo nationals over poor cooperation on returning illegal migrants, while Angola and Namibia avoided sanctions. The UK warned DR Congo to comply or face further measures amid tightened asylum rules.

Articles tagged with "DR Congo"

DR Congo fans dance in the rain after sealing World Cup spot

UK restricts DR Congo visas over migrant returns