Anti-Kabila demonstrators gather in front of a burning car during an
opposition rally in Kinshasa on September 19, 2016. PHOTO FILE | AFP
Fighting Tuesday in the DR Congo's southern opposition
stronghold of Kasai killed three men thought to belong to the
anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militia, military and local sources said.
Witnesses reported hearing light and heavy weapons fire near the region's main Kananga airport early Tuesday morning.
Around
30 youths wearing red headbands had staged an impromptu rally near the
airport shouting slogans associated with Kamwina Nsapu, an airport
source said.
"The army responded with heavy weapons
fire and three youths fell," a military source who requested anonymity
told AFP, confirming that they belonged to the militia group spawned by
the death of tribal chieftain Kamwina Nsapu in August 2016.
He
was the figurehead of a rebellion against the central government in
Kinshasa over moves by President Joseph Kabila to prolong his power.
Kananga's mayor, Edouard Ntumba Buabua, confirmed the Kananga
clash, which came after protesters in the faraway capital Kinshasa, led
by Catholic and opposition groups, on Sunday defied a ban on
demonstrations demanding that Kabila leave office.
State
forces fired tear gas into churches and bullets in the air to break up
the gatherings, with as many as 11 feared dead, according to organisers.
DR
Congo is one of the UN's global humanitarian priorities for 2018, with
four million internally displaced people and hundreds of thousands of
children at risk in Kasai, according to warnings from aid agencies.
Two
UN experts were killed in March while investigating violence in the
region, where the United Nations has counted more than 80 mass graves.
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