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Congo police accused of killing 51 during crackdown on criminal gangs Sorry - this page has been removed.
(4 months later)
Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been accused of summarily killing at least 51 people in an anti-gang operation and being responsible for the disappearance of at least 33 more. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
A report from US campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW), based on witness testimony, is the second high-profile inquiry into Operation Likofi, or “punch” in the Lingala language, launched last November to tackle criminal gangs in the capital, Kinshasa.
The government could not immediately be reached for comment but the interior minister, Richard Muyej, in October rejected a UN report that produced similar findings, and accused its authors of trying to destabilise the government. For further information, please contact:
HRW accused police involved in Operation Likofi of killing unarmed young men at home in front of family members and in markets in an attempt to intimidate the local population.
The mother of one man shot dead by police recounted how an officer told onlookers: “Come look. We killed a kuluna [gang member] who made you suffer.”
HRW said there were likely to have been more killings than the 51 it managed to document. One police officer in the operation told HRW that more than 100 had been killed.
The United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in Congo accused the Congolese national police in October of executing at least nine people in the operation, which ended in February.
The government expelled the head of the office, angering the UN security council, which has reported threats against UNJHRO staff.
In an effort to reassure international critics, Muyej convened ambassadors in Kinshasa on Friday and said the government would work with UNJHRO.