The protest, organized by civil society groups and citizens\u2019 movements, drew thousands of residents who gathered at Kavimvira roundabout before marching to City Hall. Demonstrators carried banners in Swahili reading, \u201cGasita, go back home, we don\u2019t want you in Uvira.\u201d<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
Interim Mayor Kifara Kapenda Kik\u2019y received two memoranda addressed to President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi, in which protesters accused General Gasita of ceding parts of South Kivu, including Bukavu, to the M23 rebel movement. They warned that his presence in Uvira could pave the way for rebel occupation of Uvira and Fizi.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the violence, Bishop S\u00e9bastien Muyengo of the Uvira Diocese deplored the killings, insisting that the march was a legitimate civic action aimed at expressing public discontent. He offered condolences to the bereaved families and urged authorities to listen to the people\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n
Although the demonstration initially proceeded peacefully, tensions flared when protesters moved toward the military headquarters to demand Gasita\u2019s removal. Soldiers opened fire, killing at least four and injuring several others, according to initial reports.<\/p>\n
The killings come amid a wave of protest actions in Uvira since September 2, including repeated \u201cdead city\u201d days that have paralyzed local activities. Civil society leaders say further demonstrations are likely if the government fails to act.<\/p>\n
The protest, organized by civil society groups and citizens\u2019 movements, drew thousands of residents who gathered at Kavimvira roundabout before marching to City Hall. Demonstrators carried banners in Swahili reading, \u201cGasita, go back home, we don\u2019t want you in Uvira.\u201d Interim Mayor Kifara Kapenda Kik\u2019y received two memoranda addressed to President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi, in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-normal","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":"At least five civilians were killed on Monday in Uvira, South Kivu, after security forces violently dispersed a citizens\u2019 demonstration against General Olivier Gasita, Deputy Commander of the 33rd Military Region."},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_review":[],"enable_review":"","type":"percentage","name":"","summary":"","brand":"","sku":"","good":[],"bad":[],"score_override":"","override_value":"","rating":[],"price":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5314,5311],"tags":[5629,5628],"class_list":["post-18182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-international","tag-bishop-muyengo","tag-general-gasita"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18184,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18182\/revisions\/18184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kivuavenir.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}