Protesters call for Congo leader Kabila to step down

Security forces fired teargas and arrested youths gathered in the streets of Kinshasa on Tuesday to demand that Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate expired overnight.

At least two civilians were killed overnight when soldiers opened fire during clashes in the neighbourhood of Kingabwa, two witnesses said. The government spokesman could not be reached for comment and a police spokesman could not confirm the information.

Limited protests started on Tuesday after opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called on the Congolese people to peacefully resist Kabila, who has remained in power beyond his constitutional mandate and with no election to pick a successor.

Sporadic gunfire crackled in several districts of the capital Kinshasa, a city of 12 million, as measures to thwart dissent fanned fears of more violence.

But with a ban on demonstrations in force, and a heavy military presence, Kinshasa’s normally busy main boulevards were for the most part deserted as pockets of youths gathered in sidestreets only to be dispersed with the volleys of teargas.

U.N. peacekeepers in armoured personnel carriers patrolled the streets, at one point cheered on by a crowd shouting: “Kabila, know that your mandate is finished!”

“I think there will be trouble. The people are saying Kabila has to leave,” said student Joe Doublier, 20, peering nervously out of his house in the opposition stronghold of Limete, where youths burned tyres and pieces of wood in the streets.

“It’s been 16 years and nothing has changed,” he said, referring to the time Kabila has been in power since his father was assassinated in 2001.

In Lubumbashi, a city in the heart of Africa’s richest copper mines, police and Kabila’s elite military Republican Guard unit fired live bullets to prevent demonstrations, Gregoire Mulamba, a local human rights activist, told Reuters.

But the mayor of Lubumbashi, Jean Oscar Sanguza, told Reuters security forces had intervened to stop looters.

“I launch a solemn appeal to the Congolese people to not recognise the … illegal and illegitimate authority of Joseph Kabila and to peacefully resist (his) coup d’etat,” Tshisekedi said in a video posted on YouTube.

FEARS OF ESCALATION

Authorities have blocked most social media. Such restrictive measures have raised fears of more violence in a nation that has never had a peaceful transfer of power and has suffered near-constant war and instability in the two decades since the fall of kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko.

Western powers are nervous of a repeat of the conflicts between 1996 to 2003 that killed millions, drew in half a dozen neighbouring armies and saw rebel fighters rape women en masse.

The United States and European Union have called for Kabila to respect the constitution. Congo’s former colonial master Belgium said on Tuesday it would “re-examine” relations with Kabila after he failed to step down.

France urged the European Union re-examine its links with Congo because of the “seriousness of the situation”.

Kabila has rarely spoken about the issue in public, but his allies say the election was delayed because of logistical and financial problems. The constitutional court has ruled that Kabila can stay on until the election takes place, and some opposition leaders have agreed to this.

In what appeared to be an attempt at soothing opposition grievances, Kabila’s administration announced on state TV an expansion of the government by about 20 ministerial posts to more than 65, many of them reserved for opposition members.

But many opponents, especially in Kinshasa, are not buying it. Demonstrators in the districts of Kalamu, Matete and Lingwala as well as at Kinshasa University blew whistles around midnight to signal to Kabila that it was time to leave.

Clashes that began a day earlier resumed outside of Kinshasa University, a witness said. Reuters witnesses saw more than a dozen young men who had been arrested seated in the back of a military truck near the university.

Scores of protesters have been arrested in the past 24 hours, mostly in the eastern city of Goma, according to human rights groups.