Army officers known as commandos have allegedly killed 50 UNAFEC opposition youths in Lubumbashi.
The commandos, who are allegedly infiltrated by kasai youths, carried out the operation after UNAFEC supporters clashed with ruling party cadres.
According to informers, the commandos are part of President Felix Tshisekedi’s tribesmen assigned to intimidate the population in Katanga, which is an opposition strong.
UNAFEC, founded by the late Gabriel Kyungu Wa Kumwanza, has one of the most militant youth wings in Congo’s second largest city.
The massacred of the 50 youths who were later thrown into the Naviudu river has greeted Lubumbashi with shock.
Sources say the confusion between rival camps ensued over the collection of market fees at the bridge located between Bongonga and Kilobelobe district.
It appears that the UNAFEC youths defeated their UDPS counterparts on a man-to-man match which riled kasai leaning commandos when the news filtered. Most UDPS members are kasais, it is understood.
The commandos were recently deployed to Lubumbashi are mostly youths drawn from Mbuji Mayi, Kananga and Kinshasa.
Therefore, Congolese of other ethnic grouping have little or no space within the battalion. There has been deafening silence over the massacre but local authorities have been retrieving bodies of the dead from the river over the last few days.
