17 killed as DR Congo protests turn bloody

Wild protests which broke out in the streets of DR Congo capital, Kinshasa with demonstrators calling for the resignation of incumbent President Joseph Kabila turned bloody as no less than 17 people including policemen were killed in violent clashes.

Congo’s Interior Ministry spokesman Claude Pero Luwara revealed that three of those killed were police officers while a Catholic nun said one of the policemen had been “burned alive” during the violence outside the ruling party office in Kinshasa’s volatile Limete area.

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Lambert Mende, a government spokesman, accused the opposition of “targeted looting”.

“We have now banned the demonstration,” Mende said. “These are people who had prepared to create total disorder.”

According to reports, violent protests against Kabila led government broke out with the opposition fearing that the incumbent is planning to stay in power longer than his mandate which ends this December.

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