KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese security forces shot dead at least six people and wounded dozens more as they fired tear gas to disperse a protest against President Joseph Kabila organized by the Catholic Church on Sunday, a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country said. Florence Marchal, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission (MONUSCO), also said 57 people were wounded and dozens of arrests had been made across the country. The chief of police for Kinshasa city General Sylvano Kasongo Kitenge had warned in a statement overnight that the protest was banned and that “no attempt to disturb public order will be tolerated anywhere in Kinshasa.”

Kasongo, surrounded by several armed police, visited the road leading to Notre Dame where a protest was happening, ordering everyone to go home, a Reuters witness saw. At least six people were lightly wounded when they were struck by flying tear gas canisters, he told Reuters. Anger has been building against President Kabila since he refused to step down at the end of his mandate in December 2016, triggering street protests in which scores have been killed in Kinshasa, and emboldening a plethora of armed rebel groups upcountry. The instability has stoked fears that the vast, mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo could slide back into the wars that killed millions in the 1990s, mostly from hunger and disease. “I marched today for a simple reason: I want to bring up my children in a country that respects human rights,” protester Pascal Kabeya, a 40-year-old market trader, told Reuters news agency where a few hundred had gathered in a suburb of Kinshasa. A police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The violence echoed that of New Year’s Eve, when Congolese forces killed at least seven people in the capital during a protest by Catholic activists.. Under a deal mediated between the Catholic church and Kabila’s opponents, the president was to step down at the end of last year, paving the way for an election early this year. But he reneged on the deal and the poll has been repeatedly delayed -- it is currently loosely scheduled for the end of 2018. “Those who do not protect these rights must be held accountable.”

The Roman Catholic Church has emerged as a harness for opposition to Kabila’s efforts to stay in power with no mandate, while his political opposition remains feeble and fragmented. Kabila, who has been president since his father was killed in office in 2001, blames the electoral delays on the logistics of voter registration.
The Kabila government begins blocking internet access in the capital Kinshasa at midnight, after a Catholic lay group's call to march today, in defiance of a government ban on public demonstrations. A joint statement was released by the American and British embassies on Twitter the day prior, applauding "Congolese citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble peacefully in support of the full implementation" of the Sylvester agreements of December 2016. The statement also said that those who do not protect these fundamental human rights must be held accountable "at the highest level".