By RFIPosted on 07-01-2020Modified on 07-01-2020 at 23:48

Authorities have decided to close UniKin, the University of Kinshasa, because of the riots that have been raging on the campus for two days. The rise in university fees for students who pay in Congolese francs has ignited the powder. Students and police clashed. At least one police officer was reportedly killed, lynched to death.

Despite the call for calm launched Monday evening by Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga, violence resumed on Tuesday between students and police on the university site. At least one police officer was killed. The government has decided to suspend all activities within the university until further notice.

" Obligation is made to all occupants of student residences of the University to voluntarily vacate the premises within 48 hours, " said this evening in a press release, Thomas Luhaka, the Minister of Higher Education. Otherwise, " recourse will be made to the police ".

The minister also asks the security forces to proceed " as quickly as possible to identify and arrest the perpetrators of these crimes so that they undergo, with the greatest firmness, the rigor of the law ". A statement of extreme firmness because the situation degenerated on Tuesday afternoon.

According to a commander on the spot, two police officers, including a commissioner, were killed. The two men, who were unarmed, were reportedly ambushed. A video circulated by this commander shows one of the two police officers being lynched with sticks by several students before dying on the spot. One of the officials of the university brigade speaks for the moment of only one policeman killed.

Security forces are accused by some of theft and rampage. The fever spurt started on Monday. The reason: the increase in tuition fees. Students protest in particular against the new rate of conversion of the Congolese franc to the dollar. A new rate which increased these costs by more than 200,000 Congolese francs.

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