DR CONGO: At least one dead in latest anti-Kabila protests

At least one person has been killed and two others injured in the Democratic Republic of Congo as security forces dispersed anti-government protesters, local media and human rights activists said. Security forces shot live ammunition and tear gas at demonstrators as they tried to march in the capital, Kinshasa, on Sunday to demand that DRC […]

At least one person has been killed and two others injured in the Democratic Republic of Congo as security forces dispersed anti-government protesters, local media and human rights activists said.

Security forces shot live ammunition and tear gas at demonstrators as they tried to march in the capital, Kinshasa, on Sunday to demand that DRC President Joseph Kabila step down.

Organised by the Catholic Church, the marches were meant to start after Sunday mass, but armed forces surrounded the city’s main churches and blocked several roads, Reuters news agency reported.

Jean-Mobert Senga, a DRC researcher for Amnesty International, said security forces fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in the city’s Saint Augustin and Saint Benoit neighbourhoods.

“The population is fuming in anger in the neighbourhoods,” he wrote on Twitter.

Ida Sawyer, Central Africa director for Human Rights Watch, said a Congolese activist was “shot dead” outside St Benoit church, “as security forces disperse peaceful protesters yet again”.

Internet and SMS service had been cut since Sunday morning, Sawyer wrote on Twitter, amid “reports of others wounded, arrested across [the] country”.