U.N. Condemns Congo’s Use of Force Against Protesters and Monitors

GENEVA — The United Nations on Tuesday expressed alarm over mounting repression in the Democratic Republic of Congo after security forces fired on anti-government protesters, killing at least six people, and attacked a U.N. official monitoring the protests.

The violence erupted Sunday during protests in the capital, Kinshasa, and other major cities calling on President Joseph Kabila to step down and hold free elections. Kabila was to step down at the end of 2016 at the end of his second term, as constitutionally mandated. But he refused to do so.

U.N. human rights monitors in Kinshasa had verified the deaths of six people but were investigating reports that four more people had been killed and believed the number of fatalities could rise, said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office in Geneva. Shamdasani also said that 68 people were injured and 121 people were arrested during the demonstrations.

During the protests, Congolese security forces attacked a U.N. human rights official who was monitoring the events, throwing him to the ground and kicking and punching him even though he was wearing a blue vest clearly identifying him as a member of the U.N. human rights office.

The team of monitors he was with initially retreated but later returned to observe the protests, and the security forces then fired tear gas at monitors in three vehicles, restricting their movements and preventing them from observing developments.

“They were targeted,” Shamdasani said.

“If security forces are going to be so brazen as to even attack the U.N., then we are very concerned about the way that they’re going to be treating other protesters,” she added.

Sunday’s protests were the second outburst in less than a month against Kabila. He had promised to hold elections in 2017, but the country’s election commission postponed them until the end of 2018.

The security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to break up demonstrations in Kinshasa on Dec. 31, and Shamdasani said that their actions left nine people dead and 98 injured.

Congolese authorities have also sought to stifle protests by arbitrarily detaining opposition political leaders, critics and prominent members of civil society organizations.

Sunday’s demonstrations began after services at Roman Catholic churches. Church leaders had helped to broker an agreement under which the government would hold elections at the end of 2017 in a bid to ease political tensions. But they called for peaceful demonstrations when the elections did not take place.

On Sunday, troops and police officers fired tear gas into and near churches in several cities, employing the same tactics used to break up the Dec. 31 protests.

As it did last month, the government also suspended access to the internet and social media sites throughout the country beginning Saturday night.

Pope Francis, who was in Peru at the end of visit to South America, called on Sunday for authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo to “avoid all forms of violence and seek the solutions for the common good.”