The electoral commission was meant to announce a date for presidential elections, due in November, on Monday, but has said it will not be possible to hold them then.
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Fourteen people also suffered bullet wounds during the protests, and fires broke out at the offices of three opposition political parties in Kinshasa this morning. CNN can not independently verify the figure.
Bruno Tshibala, spokesman for the largest opposition party, said five were wounded in raids on four party headquarters. “We need calm from everyone”.
“BGR is helping the Democratic Republic of Congo explain to USA lawmakers and media the many necessary steps it is taking to prepare for presidential elections and the peaceful transition that will follow”, a spokesman for BGR told The Hill in an email. The opposition asserts that Kabila simply wants to stay in power.
“Kabila, get out!” they shouted as they waved the blue-and-white flags of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), which is headed by Tshisekedi, 83.
“I don’t think it is something credible. We have seen a crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Congolese people”, he told a news conference in NY.
“What matters is the date of elections”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters in NY on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO, urged everyone “to exercise maximum restraint”.
Local media reports that dozens of protesters had a standoff with riot police in Ngaba and Yolo, protesters threw stones on the security operatives which prompted a reaction from the armed men.
Opposition leaders say security forces obstructed their planned march on Monday, firing tear gas to disperse protesters as they gathered.
The chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, has expressed concerns over the situation in the country.
Officials say the dead include three policemen and 14 civilians. Protests erupted after the Constitutional Court ruled in May that Kabila, who took power after his father Laurent Kabila’s assassination, could remain in office in a caretaker capacity beyond his mandate.
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There has not been a nonviolent transition of power in Congo since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.
