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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Pre-poll clashes erupt afresh in DR Congo's Lubumbashi |
| 2011-11-08 |
| [Daily Nation (Kenya)] Fresh festivities erupted Monday in the Democratic Republic of Congo's city of Lubumbashi between government and opposition supporters, two days after similar violence left 15 maimed. Supporters of the ruling Party for Reconstruction and Democracy and of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress, rivals in the November 28 general elections, were pelting each other with stones, an AFP news hound said. The latest round of street fights between the two camps effectively locked down parts of the city, the DRC's second largest. At least 15 people were maimed Saturday in similar festivities in the mining city, located some 1,000 miles southeast of the capital Kinshasa, between UPDS supporters and supporters of the Kabila-allied Unafec movement. Calm had returned to the capital of the mineral-rich Katanga province on Sunday but tensions flared anew early Monday. Shop windows were smashed, banks shuttered, one vehicle transported food goods was looted and pedestrians were mugged, an AFP correspondent said, reporting that most residents were holing themselves up in their homes. Late last month, an alliance of 73 Congolese and international rights groups called for restraint in an open letter sent to all presidential contenders. Aides to President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the country since the liquidation of his father Laurent in 2001, say he will tour all 11 of the provinces making up the vast country, which is four times the size of La Belle France. |
| Posted by:Fred |