Hundreds of people have been arrested in a wide-ranging crackdown in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after fresh protests against the continued rule of President Joseph Kabila.
Security forces shot dead at least six people and wounded dozens more as they fired teargas to disperse demonstrations organised by the Catholic church on Sunday. Among the victims was a woman who had wanted to become a nun, local media reported. The detained include at least a dozen priests and nuns.
The protest was the latest in a series since Kabila refused to step down at the end of his mandate in December 2016. Scores of people have been killed in Kinshasa, the capital, and elsewhere across the central African country. The exact number of detentions is unclear but may be as high as 600.
Georges Kapiamba, of the Congolese Association for Access to Justice, said more than 200 people were detained over the weekend in Kinshasa.
Further detentions were reported in the central diamond-mining town of Mbuji-Mayi, the eastern cities of Goma and Lubumbashi, as well as several other places.
The demonstrations were organised by the Lay Coordination Committee of the DRC, a group backed by many priests and bishops in the majority-Catholic country.
On New Year’s Eve, Congolese forces killed at least seven people in Kinshasa during a protest by Catholic activists. Scores of people were arrested in the days leading up to those protests. Many of the detained were badly beaten.
The instability has stoked fears that the DRC could slide back into the wars that killed millions in the 1990s, mostly from hunger and disease.
Thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in a growing conflict between militias across the south and east. Last month heavily armed militants killed 15 peacekeepers in east DRC in one of the worst attacks on UN personnel in recent memory.
Under a deal mediated by the church between Kabila and his opponents, the president was to step down at the end of last year, paving the way for an election early this year. But he reneged and the poll has been repeatedly delayed. It is now scheduled for December.
“Kabila does not have any intention to leave power … his strategy is to spread chaos across the country and then delay elections because he’ll claim there is too much violence,” said Félix Tshisekedi, a prominent opposition leader, in an interview with the Guardian last December.
Government officials and supporters of Kabila, who took power when his father was killed in office in 2001, have said the delays are down to the logistical difficulties of organising polls in a country the size of western Europe with limited infrastructure.
In recent months the Catholic church has emerged as a new force of opposition to Kabila. The president’s political opponents remain divided and weak.
Archbishops and bishops who make up the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (Cenco) have repeatedly told Kabila to declare he will not stand for a third mandate in any new polls. It published a declaration in June calling on the Congolese people to stand up and “take [their] destiny into their own hands”.
The bishops reiterated their appeal in a second declaration on 24 November and called on Kabila to release political prisoners, allow the return of exiled opposition leaders, reopen media outlets that have been forced to close and reform the national electoral commission.
The crisis has attracted limited international attention. Ida Sawyer, central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Kabila and his coterie appear ready to use all available means to crush, silence and eliminate any opposition to their efforts to stay in power. Before yet another round of deadly violence and repression, Congo’s international partners should show Kabila that further abuses will not be tolerated.”
