DRC: 6 Bodies of activists killed in protest displayed in Kinshasa

Six bodies of opposition activists killed in September during a demonstration against the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s President Joseph Kabila were on Monday publicly displayed in Kinshasa.

Their remains were deposited at the headquarters of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the party of opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, located in the center of Kinshasa.

Approximately 2,000 activists from the political group including members of the families of the deceased gathered at the venue of the funeral where the six coffins covered with white color flag-blue-yellow-red of the UDPS were displayed.

“That is what one can say? We came to lift the body that the regime has killed, loosely and savagely. We can only see the barbarity of Kabila and his flock. We are going to bury the bodies that his government has killed, this is all that we can say” said Secretary General UDPS, Jean Marc Kabund.

The UDPS is one of the main political parties in the country calling on Kabila to step down when his term expires in December.

The DRC is undermined by a deep political crisis linked to the postponement of the presidential elections formerly scheduled to be held this year, but has been postponed to April 2018 by an agreement signed in October between the majority and a minority group from the Opposition.

The DR Congo crisis goes back to 2011, because of the contested re-election of Joseph Kabila. The Head of State has been in power since 2001, his mandate expires on December 20 and the Constitution forbids him to contest for an election.

The US is threatening further impose sanctions against the DRC and President Kabila after bloody clashes in the capital Kinshasa left 17 people dead.