A bloody crackdown by security forces on members of a religious sect in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed at least 90 lives, medical and diplomatic sources said on Friday.
A member of Monuc, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), said the army had been deployed against followers of the sect in several towns and the ”repression had been ”bloody”.
Fighting over two days has centred on the capital of the south-western Bas Congo province, Matadi, and three other towns in the region. It follows allegations by the Bunda dia Kongo (BDK) religious movement that the recent election of Bas Congo’s governor was rigged.
According to the province’s chief medical official, Daniel Muanda Kianda, 21 people died in Matadi on Wednesday and Thursday and 16 were wounded.
He added that about 20 people died in clashes between the security forces in the town of Boma, where 17 people were injured, and seven more were killed in Songololo.
”We’re waiting for figures from Muanda,” the doctor told Agence France-Presse by telephone.
A Western diplomat put the death toll at 26 in Boma and 36 in Muanda. Local residents said most of the casualties were civilians and members of the movement.
The violence began on Wednesday in Matadi during a police search of a BDK house suspected of containing weapons. The following day BDK supporters attacked several official buildings and blocked roads in a number of towns.
”The army deployed in several towns and put everything into it.
It was clear the security forces wanted to do away with the BDK to suppress all opposition. But it went from being a crackdown on demos to a massacre,” said a Monuc official on condition of anonymity.
In Muanda, the army fired a rocket into a BDK building housing women and children, the official added, citing local Congolese security sources.
Reports from the area on Friday morning said the situation remained calm. — Sapa-AFP