7 DIE IN ANTI-KABILA PROTEST
BANGUI - Hundreds of people in north-east Central African Republic have fled their villages following fresh violence between armed groups, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday.
Villagers fled gunfire and machete attacks to arrive in the small town of Paoua, where some 11, 000 people have already sought refuge since fighting erupted in the region in November.
"There are clashes at almost every point all around Paoua. We have seen hundreds of people flee their villages to take refuge in Paoua" since Wednesday, said Jean Hospital, MSF's project coordinator in the region.
"We received civilians who were directly targeted by gunfire or were attacked with machetes, while others are collateral victims of the clashes," he added.
Rival armed groups the National Movement for the Liberation of the Central African Republic (MNLC) and Revolution and Justice (RJ) began fighting on the outskirts of Paoua on Wednesday, following renewed violence in the region since November, sources said.
"The RJ told the population to flee and leave the roads open in case of an attack," pastor Roy-Rodrigue Doutoumbaye told AFP on Wednesday at Paoua Hospital, where he accompanied a loved one shot in the head.
"They really wanted to kill me but because I had 110 000 francs (190 euros) on me they took the money and left me alive," 52-year-old Jope, who suffers from tuberculosis, told AFP.
– AFP. KINSHASA - Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed at least seven people at a protest calling for President Joseph Kabila to step down, UN peacekepers say.
Police said three people had died and two of the deaths were being investigated.
Church activists and opposition parties had backed the demonstration.
Under a deal reached 2016, Kabila was due to step down by the end of 2017.
That was a year after the end of his second term in office. An election to replace him has now been delayed until December this year.
Catholic activists had called for protests after Sunday church services, but the Congolese authorities banned the demonstration.
Police used live ammunition and tear gas to prevent protesters from gathering at locations including churches.
Two men were shot dead outside a church in the capital Kinshasa, rights group Human Rights Watch said.
UN spokeswoman Florence Marchal said that in addition to the seven people shot dead in Kinshasa, another protester had been killed in the central city of Kananga,
More than 120 people had been arrested, she said.
She condemned the “use of force against peaceful demonstrators” and the “violent suppression of fundamental rights and freedoms by security forces.”
Kabila has been in power since 2001. He was supposed to step down after his second and final term came to an end in 2016 but the vote to replace him was not held.
The failure to organise the polls led to a wave of deadly demonstrations by opposition supporters. The UN says dozens of people have been killed during anti-government protests over the past year.
A deal to create a transitional government brokered by the Catholic church collapsed because the government and the opposition were unable to agree on the power-sharing mechanism.