Congo police crack down on protesters

Opposition parties are decrying bills to rewrite presidential term limits and efforts to postpone elections

A violent crackdown by Congo’s security forces has cast a spotlight on a growing wave of African regimes seeking to use authoritarian power to extend the rule of their leaders.

Dozens of opposition politicians and their supporters were injured Friday when police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters who are fighting a bill that could allow a term extension for Felix Tshisekedi, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2019.

A similar bill in Zimbabwe that could prolong the rule of President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been backed by police action against civil society groups that oppose the term extension. Police have banned many of their meetings, while authorities have limited the speaking opportunities for opponents at public hearings.

The manoeuvres in the DRC and Zimbabwe are the latest in a series of moves to entrench the power of autocrats across the continent. The governments of Uganda, Rwanda and Ivory Coast are among those that have lengthened the rule of their presidents by rewriting their two-term limits.

The violence in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, began Friday after a coalition of opposition parties rallied outside the parliament building to protest a bill authorizing referendums to pave the way for constitutional amendments if there is “dysfunction” in state institutions.

The opposition leaders say the bill would keep Mr. Tshisekedi in power beyond 2028, when he reaches the end of his legal twoterm limit. The President has hinted openly that he is preparing for another term. “If the people want me to have a third term, I will accept,” he told journalists last month.

Mr. Tshisekedi has also suggested that he might scrap the next scheduled election in 2028 because of the war in eastern Congo, where the Rwandanbacked M23 militia has captured two major cities. “If this war cannot be ended, unfortunately we will not be able to organize elections in 2028,” he said. “You cannot hold elections when parts of the country are occupied.”

The bill to allow constitutional revisions was approved by Congo’s national assembly last week by an overwhelming majority after opposition lawmakers boycotted the vote. It now goes to the Senate for further debate.

The opposition organized a “dead city” protest in Kinshasa on June 3. Its supporters stayed home for the day, leaving many of the city’s streets largely empty.

On Friday, after the opposition groups walked toward the parliament building to begin a sit-in, hundreds of police quickly moved to block them and break up the protest. They were backed by riot-control vehicles and groups of young men from a progovernment militia.

Videos from the scene show police firing tear gas and beating the protesters with sticks. The pro-government militia later attacked and looted the headquarters of several opposition parties, with the police doing little to stop them.

Several politicians were injured in the crackdown. Videos show a prominent opposition leader, Martin Fayulu, staggering away from the police with a blood-spattered shirt while his supporters surrounded him to protect him. Mr. Fayulu officially finished second in Congo’s 2018 election, although many election observers reported that he had won the popular vote.

At least two people were killed in the violence, according to opposition parties and humanrights groups. The government denied this, but videos show two motionless bodies on the ground, with members of the militia hurling rocks at them.

Mr. Fayulu accused the government of using “extreme brutality” in an attempt to disable or eliminate opposition leaders. “It reveals the fear of a regime confronted with the popular will,” he said in an online post.

The violence sparked international concern. “The violent excesses, the excessive use of force that may have led to the loss of human lives, and the ransacking of party headquarters have no place in a democracy,” Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Prévot said in a statement.

The European Union’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Anouar El Anouni, said the EU deplored the violence, citing “deaths and serious injuries.” In a democracy, there must be freedom to demonstrate peacefully, he said.

The Human Rights Foundation, a U.S.-based group, said the Congolese President was “attempting to forcefully cling to power with constitutional manipulation, while cracking down on dissent in the same way that his predecessor Joseph Kabila did.”

Denis Mukwege, a Congolese physician and humanitarian leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, said the government was creating a “climate of repression and intimidation” to muzzle the opposition and civil society groups. In a social-media post, he said the government was planning a “constitutional coup d’état” to entrench its rule.

A recent research paper by Marie-Eve Desrosiers of the University of Ottawa and Nic Cheeseman of the University of Birmingham found 47 attempts to evade term limits in 31 countries in Africa from 1990 to 2024, with most of them occurring in the past 15 years. More than three-quarters of those attempts were successful, the researchers found.

In Zimbabwe, a bill now before parliament would amend the constitution and postpone the scheduled 2028 election, allowing Mr. Mnangagwa to extend his rule. A number of activists opposing the bill have been arrested, threatened or harassed.