Voteban protesters fired at, teargassed
KINSHASA: Security forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fired live rounds and tear gas yesterday to scatter demonstrators who burned tyres and ransacked an Ebola centre to protest about their exclusion from the presidential election.
The electoral commission (CENI) announced on Thursday it was cancelling voting in this weekend’s election in the opposition strongholds of Beni, Butembo and their surrounding areas due to an ongoing Ebola outbreak and militia violence.
In another sign of the Government’s hardening stance as the election approaches, the foreign ministry announced the expulsion of EU ambassador Bart Ouvry after the EU renewed sanctions against officials including the ruling coalition’s presidential candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
The vote is meant to pick a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled since 2001. If successful, it would mark Congo’s first democratic transition after decades marked by authoritarian rule, coups and civil war.
Politicians in Beni denounced the CENI’s decision as an attempt to boost Shadary and called for protests.
‘‘There was a group of demonstrators who wanted to enter the CENI office . . . to demand the cancellation of the decision,’’ Giscard Yere, a Beni resident, said.
‘‘But the police officers and soldiers who were there fired to disperse the demonstrators.’’
Protesters ransacked an Ebola isolation centre in Beni, causing 24 patients to flee, and demonstrators attacked the office of the government agency coordinating the Ebola response in Beni.
Beni police commander Safari Kazingufu said three policemen were wounded and 17 protesters detained in connection with the attack on the Ebola centre. — Reuters