logo
POST TIME: 21 December, 2016 00:00 00 AM
Sustained gunfire heard in Lubumbashi
AFP

Sustained gunfire heard in Lubumbashi

AFP, LUBUMBASHI:  Sustained gunfire erupted yesterday in Lubumbashi, DR Congo’s second-largest city, where large numbers of police have been deployed on the last day of President Joseph Kabila’s mandate, an AFP correspondent said.The firing started at 9:15am (0715 GMT) in the Matuba neighbourhood in the south of the city where demonstrators and police have clashed, with streets strewn with rocks and burned tyres, the correspondent said.The gunfire was intense for about 20 minutes, and then became more intermittent, he said. Earlier in Matuba, a policeman told AFP that his men were facing hostile groups of demonstrators.Three of the demonstrators were armed, added Jean-Claude Kazembe, governor of the Upper Katanga district which includes Lubumbashi.