President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step aside has led to a series of demonstrations across Congo over the weekend in denunciation of his long stay in power. According to Human Rights Watch, security forces shot and killed two men Sunday during protests called for by Catholic activists, one year after Kabila pledged to hold an election to pick his successor before 2017 runs out. He seems to have backtracked on that commitment altogether.
Constitutional term limits forbid him from running again. But the delay to organize an election is now raising the suspicions among Congolese If Kabila is planning to remove the term limit, a move which risks plunging the country back into a civil war which killed millions in the late 90s.
According to the Central Africa director of HRW, Ida Sawyer, the two men were shot outside of St. Alphonse Church in Matete District of the capital Kinshasa. A spokesman for the police, Pierrot Mwanamputu has denied security forces had used live ammunition. ”We are operating in the daytime. Everyone is watching us. It’s not the night” he insists.
Seven have been left seriously wounded by gunfire, nearly 50 people were detained in Kinshasa while in the southeastern town of Kamina, according to human rights activist George Kapiamba.
Opposition leader Vital Kamerhe, who was worshipping at the Saint Michel Parish at the Bandulungwa district in Kinshasa alongside other parishioners were fired upon with teargas by security forces. Felix Tshisekedi, another opposition figure who was attending mass at the Notre Dame du Congo cathedral, still in the capital, the path of hundred protesters were blocked as they prepare a march by soldiers and police officers. Tshisekedi who had earlier supported the march pass bailed out at the last minute but leaving the scene in his car.
An internet blockade, as well as SMS services, have been cut across the nation, that seems the route used by Africa’s dictators in shutting down dissenting voices and frustrate movements aimed at challenging their long stay in power
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst
