At least 17 people including three policemen were killed when Congolese police and anti-government protesters clashed in the capital Kinshasa on Monday during a march against President Joseph Kabila’s perceived bid to extend his mandate.
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“We have recorded several deaths”, said Bruno Tshibala, a spokesman for the opposition UDPS party, adding that he had seen four bodies piled up in the office of an allied party.
HRW Africa researcher for the New York-based group, Ida Sawyer, said 17 people were killed overnight and on Tuesday, while 20 had been killed on Monday.
But the opposition said at least 50 people were killed during the protest.
Lambert Mende Omalanga, minister of communication, told CNN: “We condemn revenge attacks as a manner of justice”.
The offices of the opposition parties, Innovative Forces for Union and Solidarity (FONUS) and the Lumumbist Progressive Movement (MLP), were razed in the early hours of Tuesday with one person injured.
The central African nation hasn’t had a peaceful transition of power since gaining independence in 1960.
Fire was still raging at the building where a tearful woman in her 40s said that her husband had been there when unidentified assailants attacked the building.
The U.N. human rights office noted reports of “excessive use of force” by both security forces and demonstrators.
In a further sign of growing tensions between Washington and Kinshasa, the USA embassy said on its Twitter feed that it was “outraged” by the harassment of its special envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Thomas Perriello, at Kinshasa’s airport.
The United States said it is disappointed that Congo did not announce an election calendar Monday, and said it is deeply alarmed by the reports of violence. “We are meeting in a national dialogue in order to organize free and fair elections”, he told CNN.
Kabila took power in 2001 after his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated.
The United States has already threatened sanctions against political figures in Congo over electoral delays. Tshisekedi went on to say that the DRC is a dictatorship and he says this government deserves the popular revolt that is coming to topple it.
The government banned demonstrations against President Joseph Kabila following the deadly clashes.
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Tom Perriello, U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, said Washington would hold all sides accountable for their actions during the latest violence and that the government could easily have taken steps to defuse tension.
