"We have come to take possession of Our Lady of the Congo Cathedral to take part in Sunday mass ... and defend the homeland," Papy Pungu, youth wing leader of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), told AFP, vowing to "spend the night here." Authorities banned Sunday's anti-Kabila march after previous protests on New Year's Eve and January 21 saw 15 people killed by security forces, according to tolls given by organisers and the UN.
The government says just two people died at those protests. Witnesses said the arrival at the cathedral of the PPRD supporters, many wearing red berets, sowed panic in the capital's northern Lingwala municipality. "They arrived aboard several Transco (public transport) buses and stormed the shrine of the Virgin. It's a provocation," local parishioner Felicite Mbula told AFP.
"The church is closed, we couldn't hold mass this evening," she added. Antoine Bokoka, a parish official, said the PPRD were "pretending to come to pray Sunday. But you don't stay overnight in our parishes." The capital was already on edge after authorities banned the anti-Kabila protest, with two similar rallies having been brutally put down last month. Kinshasa governor Andre Kimbuta told the Catholic organisers in a letter on Saturday that without an agreed route, the city authorities "cannot guarantee proper supervision" of the demonstration.
Kimbuta's decision came after organisers were invited to discuss possible routes but the meeting ended without a deal when members of a key opposition group did not turn up. Sunday's planned march was called by the Lay Coordination Committee (CLC), an organisation close to the church, an influential social and spiritual force in the troubled central African country.