Man killed, police stations raided in DRC protest against crime

A man was killed and several public buildings were ransacked during a protest on Monday by supporters of President Felix Tshisekedi over violent crime in DR Congo's southeast, local officials said.

Activists of Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) demonstrated in the southeastern town of Kasumbalesa, on the Zambian border.

The town's mayor Andre Kapampa Kamwanya said that a bystander was shot during the chaos who later died in hospital.

He added that UDPS activists ransacked two police stations, a court and private property.

The protest was sparked when a prominent local UDPS figure was killed by unknown assailants on Sunday night, witnesses told AFP.

The figure was the "president of the standing parliament of Kasumbalesa", an informal UDPS organisation, said Bruno Tshibangu, the party's leader in the Haut-Katanga province.

The province has been riven with violent crime.

Seven UDPS activists have been killed since July 9, Tshibangu said, accusing the provincial authorities of failing in their mission keep people and their property secure.