Congo death toll hits 44 in anti-Kabila unrest

The death toll in violent protests in Congolese capital, Kinshasa against the incumbent president Joseph Kabila, has risen to 44.

6 police officers are among the casualties with 37 other demonstrators, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

The bone of contention are plans to move the upcoming November elections forward indefinitely, a move the opposition believe is a tactics from Kabila to stay in power.

Kabila is barred constitutionally from running for a third term and his allies say he will respect the constitution.

With the disturbances forcing schools to close and halting public transport in the sprawling riverside capital Kinshasa, the United Nations expressed fears the situation could worsen.

Several people were killed overnight when security forces burned down the headquarters of the main opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), and attacked buildings of other opposition parties, according to Ida Sawyer, an Africa researcher for New York-based HRW.

Twenty people were killed in clashes on Monday and another 17 on Tuesday – “most (of them) when security forces fired on crowds of protesters”, Sawyer said.

Eye witnesses say a lot of the attackers were uniformed men however, the government have denied the involvement of their forces in the violence.