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Deaf people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are at a week-long ban on texting. The Congolese government the ban over a week ago following the country’s elections. Violence erupted after voters the election was rigged, so the returned president Joseph Kabila SMS messages to restore public order to the streets. This is very news for the 1.4 million deaf people in the country who on texting as a major means of communication. Deaf people in the capital Kinshasa say the ban represents a to their lives as they cannot receive on violence in the city. Four people were killed in Kinshasa following the announcement of the election .

BBC News reporter Thomas Hubert says Congo’s Interior Minister Adolphe Lumanu had been “ to suspend all…text messaging services to preserve public " as they were being used to "incite ethnic , insurrection and xenophobia". Mr Hubert reports that: “The measure deaf Congolese people have been condemned to indefinite isolation.” Pastor Kisangala, the deaf community's religious minister in Kinshasa told Mr Hubert about how the situation was: “We're finding it very to communicate. All our communications to go through SMS messages. Our are scattered across the city, some are in hospital, others are . Without communication we don't even know about it," he said.