The statement also urged protesters to continue protests on Tuesday. A human rights group reports more than 40 people have been killed, majority civilians.
Advertisement
The United States has already threatened sanctions against political figures in Congo over electoral delays.
Hundreds took to the streets of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, on Monday to oppose an election delay which they call an effort by President Joseph Kabila to stay in power beyond the end of his mandate in late December.
Opposition parties accuse Kabila of conspiring to extend his mandate by delaying general elections, initially set to take place in November, to next year at the very least. His supporters deny this charge. Congolese Interior Minister Evariste Boshab claimed that 17 people died, including three police officers, and described the demonstration as an “uprising”. He calls on the Congolese authorities to ensure that the national security forces exercise maximum restraint in their response to protests.
A second day of violence on Tuesday killed several people after more than 50 died Monday in protests urging Kabila to step down as scheduled.
Earlier on Monday, youths shouting “Kabila get out” threw stones at police on a main avenue in the heart of the city of about 10-million people. “The authorities made a decision to put an end to the protest and disperse it”.
The protests came after Congo’s largest opposition parties rejected a proposal that Kabila remain in power until elections are held.
Kabila’s supporters also plan a loyalty march this weekend, according to a statement released on Sunday.
Congo, Africa’s top copper producer, has never had a peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.
Fears are growing that one of the world’s poorest countries will again spin into chaos. The mineral-rich but largely impoverished country suffered back-to-back civil wars until 2003, and previous instability has drawn in armies from neighboring countries.
“We remain ready to impose additional targeted sanctions on individuals who have been involved in abuses or violence”, Perriello later told a news conference in NY, according to Reuters.
It imposed targeted sanctions on a Kinshasa police chief in June.
“The government can only condemn this mob justice mentality”, he said.
Advertisement
Images from Congo show bodies of blood-stained victims apparently shot dead by Kabila’s security forces.
