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HRW: At Least 26 Killed in Congo Protests

HRW: At Least 26 Killed in Congo Protests
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Security forces in Congo killed at least 26 demonstrators and arrested scores more amid protests against President Joseph Kabila's hold on power, a rights group said.


HRW: At Least 26 Killed in Congo Protests

Military and police forces were firing live bullets, raising fears that more people were killed in the first day after Kabila's mandate expired, Human Rights Watch said.

Its researcher Ida Sawyer said on Twitter late Tuesday that the killings took place in the capital, Kinshasa, the southern city of Lubumbashi and elsewhere. Residents told the group that Republican Guards were carrying out door-to-door searches and arresting youths.

On Wednesday, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo said it had documented 19 cases of people shot to death, 45 wounded and a "very high number" of arrests in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Matadi and Goma.

Protesters burned the headquarters of the ruling party in Kinshasa. The government said nine people had been killed in the capital: a police officer, two women hit by stray bullets and six men killed in looting.

Political talks between the ruling party and opposition, which stalled over the weekend, were expected to resume on Wednesday with mediators from the Catholic Church.

The United States is "greatly disappointed by President Kabila's failure to organize elections and to state publicly that he will not run again," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington. He said the US condemned the latest violence and urged all sides to participate in Wednesday's talks "fully and in good faith."

Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his father's assassination, is constitutionally barred from seeking another term, but a court has ruled that he can remain in power until new elections, which have been delayed indefinitely.

They were meant to be in November, but the ruling party says it needs more time - until 2018, at least.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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