At least 17 persons, including three policemen, were killed in heavy clashes between the protesters and police in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, the country’s Interior Minister has said.
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A minibus and a auto were burned in Limete early Monday before the planned demonstration.
Kabila’s mandate ends in December but the opposition says he is preparing a plan to stay in power longer.
As many as 50 people died in Monday’s violence, Agence France-Presse reported, citing an opposition statement.
Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called the situation in the vast African country “very unsafe and extremely worrying” amid deadly clashes ahead of plans for a major opposition demonstration.
“We’ve also received credible reports that protesters have killed at least six police officers and a (ruling party) PPRD supporter and they have also burned and looted several shops and police stations”, Sawyer said. Opposition supporters have accused the sitting president of wanting to extend his rule by not holding elections originally scheduled for November as required by the constitution.
Georges Kapiamba, director of the Congolese Association For Access to Justice, a local non-governmental organisation, said that security forces shot dead twenty-five protesters.
He said that Tom Perriello, the U.S. special envoy for the Great Lakes region who had spent 10 days in Kinshasa encouraging dialogue, faced “physical obstruction and verbal aggression” as he flew out on Sunday.
The DRC’s constitution is clear that the democratic aspirations of the Congolese people should be met through elections, particularly Presidential elections.
They condemned the violence and called upon all Congolese stakeholders to exercise restraint and avoid provocation, while reiterating that the DRC Government has the primary responsibility for protecting human rights, including the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. The country’s electoral commission had indicated that the voter list would not be formalized before July 2017.
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Former colonial ruler Belgium bled the mineral-rich central African nation dry and it has been wracked by unrest since independence in 1960. The opposition is demanding President Joseph Kabila step down from his post by December.
