Political-religious sect blamed for killing at least 12 in DRC
Kinshasa —Twelve people were killed on Monday by stray gunfire in a wave of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kinshasa, a spokesperson for the national police said, accusing a political-religious sect opposed to President Joseph Kabila. The toll was a provisional estimate, Pierrot-Rombaut Mwanamputu said in an emergency broadcast that broke into programming on public television. "Sadly, we must at this stage give a provisional toll of loss of human life, of 12 people hit by stray bullets," he said as violence struck two days before the start of a planned series of opposition protests. Opposition supporters are demanding the publication of an electoral calendar, elections and Kabila’s departure from office. Kabila, in power since 2001, is seeking to stay on despite constitutional limits on his terms in office. Under a transitional deal aimed at avoiding violence in the sprawling, mineral rich country of 71-million people, Kabila, who failed to step down when his second m...
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