Fresh clashes in Congo after day of deadly protest

BRAZZAVILLE:Demonstrators (and security forces clashed for a second day in Congo’s capital Wednesday in unrest triggered by the president’s bid to extend his three-decade term in office, an AFP correspondent said.
After a day in which four people were killed and 10 hurt in clashes, dozens of youths took to the streets in western Brazzaville in an apparent bid to throw up barricades as security forces fired rounds of tear gas grenades to hold them back.
Opposition supporters also reported clashes in southern parts of the capital, but it was not clear if Wednesday’s fresh violence had caused any casualties.
For the second day running, mobile Internet, text messaging services and French radio RFI’s signal were cut throughout the city.
Clashes broke out on Tuesday after the government banned a planned opposition rally against Sunday’s referendum which could allow President Denis Sassou Nguesso to prolong his stay in office.
The vote proposes changing the constitution to increase the maximum age of presidential candidates, currently 70, and to scrap a rule that limits the number of seven-year terms to two.
Speaking late on Tuesday, Interior Minister Raymond Mboulou said the unrest -- which he described as an “organised and coordinated insurrection” -- had left three people dead in Brazzaville and another in Pointe-Noire, the country’s economic capital and its second city.
“Symbols of the republic, such as the headquarters of the police (or) the gendarmerie, were targeted,” he said.
Northern and eastern areas of the capital were calm, but a resident of a southern neighbourhood told AFP several shops were looted during the night.
Pascal Tsaty Mabiala, a leader of the main opposition PanAfrican Union for Social Democracy, called Tuesday for “a peaceful popular insurrection” to prevent the referendum from taking place.
Speaking by phone, Public Works Minister Emile Ouosso who has led a “yes” to the referendum campaign claimed he had been “taken hostage” for nearly five hours by “activists opposed to changing the constitution”.
Sunday’s referendum amendment would allow Sassou Nguesso, who was returned to power in 1997 elections after a brief but bloody civil war, to seek a third term in office.
The former Marxist soldier also ruled Congo from 1979 to 1992.
Under the current constitution, Sassou Nguesso, 72, is not able to run again because of his age and due to the fact that he has already served two seven-year terms.
In the last presidential poll in 2009, he won nearly 79 percent of the votes. Half of his 12 rivals boycotted the election.
Tens of thousands of the president’s supporters staged a rally on Saturday in favour of the constitutional changes.
The turnout dwarfed the size of an anti-government demonstration late last month, when several thousand people poured onto the capital’s streets to protest against the president’s plan to cling to power.
They had rallied under the cry “Sassoufit”, a pun on the French expression which means “that’s enough”.