Police disperse protest
La police empêche une manifestation des victimes du 4 mars à Brazzaville https://t.co/V1U9wRsudu
— Radio de la Femme, 95.3 FM (@femme_radio) December 7, 2021
Peaceful Assembly
Protesters dispersed by police
On 7th December 2021, dozens of people - victims of the 2012 explosion of a military munition depot in the Brazzaville neighbourhood of Mpila - attempted to protest to demand the reconstruction of their houses, which were destroyed in the explosion. They were met by police, who were deployed in numbers. Police reportedly used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
VOA - A Brazzaville, les ONG dénoncent les pratiques des policiers, le procureur les défend https://t.co/0Tea5T09fX pic.twitter.com/EderkhVZk5
— Afropages (@Afropages) December 10, 2021
Association
International Human Rights Day: human rights organisations denounce detention conditions
On the occasion of International Human Rights Day on 10th December 2021, human rights organisations in the Republic of Congo denounced poor detention conditions in detention centres and at police stations. This followed after six people died while being detained at the Brazzaville central police station during the night of 5th November 2021. While authorities claimed the deaths were due to overcrowding at the detention centre, an autopsy on four of the six bodies, requested by a human rights organisation, revealed that the deceased were subjected to torture.
Trésor Nzila Kendet, executive director of Centre d’action pour le développement (CAD; Center of Action for Development) commented to VOA Afrique about civil society efforts to highlight detention conditions:
"It's moving very timidly. We have the impression of not being listened to, if not very little. There is no lack of proposals, but the feeling that emerges is that the situation is deteriorating more and more."
