DRC military killed 40 protesters in December 2016: UN

By Pascal Mulegwa

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo

The UN has accused Congolese military of killing at least 40 people on Dec. 19, 2016, following protests against President Joseph Kabila.

According to a report released late Tuesday by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), security forces used disproportionate force to prevent civilians from protesting.

“Between 15 and Dec. 31 2016, United Nations Joint Human Rights Office [JHRO] documented the killing of at least 40 people, including five women and two children, and the wounding of 147 individuals, including 14 women and 18 children, as a result of the disproportionate use of force and the use of live ammunition” by the Congolese armed forces, the report said.

The Congolese defense and security forces also arrested at least 917 people, including 30 women and 95 children.

“The actions by the Congolese authorities were executed through disproportionate and illegal restrictions of public freedoms, including the right to freedoms of expression, information and peaceful assembly, in contravention with both international human rights standards and the provisions of the constitution of the DRC,” the report said.

“The JHRO raises serious concerns about the absence of measures taken against perpetrators of human rights violations committed in the DRC in recent months in relation to the political tensions around the electoral process, which contributes to a culture of impunity, and which may have encouraged the defense and security forces to commit violations in the period detailed in this report,” it added.

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende declined to comment on the report.

DRC has seen several anti-Kabila demonstrations in the past few months as opposition parties and civil groups called on the president to step down at the end of his two-term mandate in November 2016.

In power since 2001, Kabila was elected in 2006 and reelected in 2011. The opposition suspects him of maneuvering to seek a third unconstitutional mandate.

On Dec. 31, 2016, Congolese political parties agreed on a political transition extending Kabila’s rule till the end of 2017.