DR Congo clashes at anti-govt rally injure opposition figures

Two opposition figures in the DR Congo were injured on Friday at a rally against government plans to change the constitution, which was broken up by police after clashes with pro-government supporters.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, a vast, impoverished central African country, is battling a deadly Ebola outbreak and the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group in its eastern region.

In power since 2019, President Felix Tshisekedi, 62, comes to the end of his second -- and, under the current constitution, final -- five-year mandate in 2028.

However, he has recently declared that he would agree to lead the conflict-plagued country for a third term "if the people wish it" after a referendum on reforming the constitution.

The ruling majority has sought for weeks to remove the Congolese constitution's iron-clad two-term limit for presidents.

The main parties of the divided and weak opposition came together last month in a coalition to oppose what they see as the president's attempt to cling to power.

On Friday, the C64 coalition called a rally in front of the parliament building in the capital, Kinshasa, to protest changing the constitution.

But the gathering quickly degenerated into skirmishes between opposition supporters and pro-government activists, and then with police, an AFP journalist saw.

Police fired tear gas at the some hundred-strong cortege of demonstrators.

Martin Fayulu, who came second to Tshisekedi in the 2018 presidential election and third in 2023, and fellow opposition figure Prince Epenge were slightly injured in the clashes, marked by stone throwing, the AFP journalist saw.

Headquarters attacked

Following the unrest, some opposition protesters, including several who were also injured, took refuge in the headquarters of Fayulu's Commitment to Citizenship and Development (ECIDE) party.

Police and activists claiming to belong to the Forces of Progress, a youth movement linked to the ruling party and often criticised for its violent actions, briefly attacked the party's building with stones.

Tshisekedi "has associated the Forces of Progress militia with the police to attack unarmed activists", Fayulu told AFP at his party headquarters.

Most of the supporters who had been injured that AFP spoke to at the ECIDE headquarters said they had been hit by stones and some said they were injured by bullets, which AFP was not able to confirm.

The police did not respond to AFP requests for comment.

Under the constitution, the number and length of presidential mandates in the DRC cannot be subject to revision.

A bill currently before the National Assembly, however, aims to allow the president to amend the articles of the constitution in the event of a "major dysfunction" paralysing state institutions, following a referendum.

The C64 coalition is calling for the withdrawal of the bill, which it says is a "serious threat" to the country's stability.

Former president Joseph Kabila, who has been sentenced to death in absentia accused of supporting the M23 armed group, urged the Congolese to support all initiatives opposing constitutional change.