May 14th, 2021 at 12:28 pm
A police officer was beaten to death and his body burnt during a clash between two Muslim groups on Thursday’s Eid celebrations.
The sad incident which reportedly occurred in Congo’s capital Kinshasa left 46 others injured.
Reuters.com reported a police spokesman as having confirmed the fatal incident.
According to the news outlet, members of two opposing camps vying for leadership positions in Congo’s Muslim community sparred outside Kinshasa’s Martyrs Stadium Thursday morning, where they had planned to worship together as a demonstration of unity.
“Unfortunately, there were extremists who didn’t want the two groups to pray together today,” it quoted Sylvano Kasongo, who heads the Kinshasa police as saying.
The police boss further confirmed that the death of the officer who was set on fire and the injury of 46 others.
Reports say officers fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse the crowd as the angry rioters threw stones and destroyed a police vehicle in the process.
That was not the only clash that happened in Congo on Thursday’s Eid celebrations. It is reported that elsewhere in Kinshasa, it took police to bring under control a crowd who set ablaze the home of a leader of a rival camp and then several vehicles.
The unfortunate developments in the capital reportedly led to the cancellation of Eid celebrations in the eastern city of Goma to avoid any such incident.
source: pulse.com.gh