Police officer shoots non-masked student in DR Congo

A policeman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo shot dead a student who was not wearing a mask while filming in the streets of the capital, witnesses said on Sunday.

“Our friend Honoré Shama, a student at the Faculty of Letters at the University of Kinshasa, was filming a video as part of his practical work as an actor,” a friend present at the French news agency Patient Odia told the confrontation. .

“A policeman told him to wear a mask while filming.”

“Despite his explanations (from Shama) and after showing him a mask, the policeman, who expected to be offered money, got angry, accused him of resistance and shot him. on it at close range. “

Other witnesses told a similar story to popular radio Top Congo as well as to several online news sites.

The police officer in charge has fled and the city police are looking for him, Kinshasa police chief General Sylvano Kasongo told AFP.

Fugitive policeman
“The police arrested two policemen, present during the incident provoked by their irresponsible colleague (…) as well as the head” of a local police station, he declared.

“The search is continuing to find the fleeing policeman,” Kasongo said.

Wearing a mask is compulsory in DR Congo, the transgressors being sentenced to a fine of 10,000 Congolese francs (five dollars, four euros).

In Kinshasa, the police are regularly accused of harassment and of pocketing the mask fines they receive.

DR Congo has recorded 47,786 cases of Covid-19 and 1,021 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Vaccinations have been halted in the country since July 10, as AstraZeneca vaccines in stock have passed their expiration date.

(wwith AFP)