KINSHASA, (MILLAT ONLINE/APP/AFP) – Police have detained dozens of
people accused of violating a ban on protests against DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, police said Tuesday.
“Police have arrested and detained 34 people in Kinshasa,” after Monday’s protests, said national police spokesman Pierre-Rombaut Mwanamputu.
“Some wanted to breach the ban on a march, the others were preparing acts of vandalism.”
Late Tuesday he said all of them had been released.
He gave no details of arrests in other parts of the vast country, where there is strong anger over Kabila remaining in office beyond the end of his mandate in December 2016.
Human Rights Watch said in a blog that over 80 people were arrested in Kinshasa and several other towns, including Bukavu in the east and Lubumbashi in the southeast.
The rights group told AFP that its figures include people who were arrested and subsequently released but was unable to say how many remained in detention.
The call by Democratic Republic of Congo’s main opposition party for
nationwide protests Monday appeared to have been ignored in Kinshasa, however, where people stayed home fearing violence after the authorities banned the rallies.