Congolese security forces have fired tear gas in and around churches to break up large protests against President Joseph Kabila. At least seven deaths and dozens of arrests were reported.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/N. Bothma
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Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least seven people on Sunday and at least one policeman died, as clashes broke out during a protest in the capital Kinshasa.
Police and soldiers set up roadblocks amid a heavy security presence to block around a thousand people who defied a government ban. Dozens of people were arrested.
Protesters are demanding that President Joseph Kabila publicly state he will not extend his power beyond a two-term constitutional limit.
Kabila, who has been in power since the 2001 assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, has not ruled out another presidential run through constitutional changes.
Elections have been repeatedly delayed since Kabila's constitutionally mandated two-term limit expired in December 2016. They are currently scheduled for December 2018.
Security forces fired tear gas in and around churches after Catholic activists called for protests after Sunday mass.
Opposition parties, civil society, youth movements and about 150 Catholic churches support peaceful demonstrations.
Major crackdown
Officers shot dead two men outside the St. Alphonse church in Kinshasa's Matete district, Human Rights Watch's Central Africa director Ida Sawyer said. A police officer also died in the incident.
Authorities had earlier shut down internet and SMS services and warned that any gathering of more than five people would be dispersed.
Witnesses and churchgoers reported security forces firing tear gas and stun grenades at protesters gathered outside a number of churches in the capital.
Opposition leader Vital Kamerhe told Reuters that security forces fired tear gas into the Paroisse Saint Michel during the mass he was attending.
At the Notre-Dame of Congo Cathedral in Gombe, in north Kinshasa, security forces fired tear gas as opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi arrived, AFP news agency reported.
Twelve altar boys dressed in their liturgical robes were also arrested at one church as they led a protest march.
About half of the Democratic Republic of Congo's population is Catholic and the church is considered a respected institution by many.
Elections were to be held by the end of 2017 under a church-mediated deal between the opposition and Kabila that was agreed a year ago.
Deadly street demonstrations organized by the opposition since last December have left dozens dead, raising concern the country could plunge into greater political violence.
Gold mining in DRC, from the ore to the bar
For the people in the eastern DRC, small-scale gold mining is a key source of income. The workers risk their lives digging for the ore, which passes through many hands before it becomes a gleaming bar of pure gold.
Image: Robert Carrubba
Back-breaking work
Deep down, a miner in a rural artisanal gold mine chisels gold ore out of the earth. The shaft team is composed mainly of excavators and bag porters. Miners spend six to eight hours down the shafts each day. The work is physically demanding. At this mine, around 200 kilograms of ore must be excavated to extract one gram of gold
Image: Robert Carrubba
Sacks of rocks for a gram of gold
A miner maneuvers through a narrow tunnel junction, as his colleague waits in line. The bags of ore he has been heaving through the mine, in the direction of the mineshaft entrance, are in front of him. After agriculture, artisanal mining is the most important livelihood in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Image: Robert Carrubba
30 kilos per load
A bag porter carries his load downhill from the mine for processing. The porters are paid 500 Congolese Francs - about $0.35 (0.29 Euros) at current Eastern Congo exchange rates - per bag by the shaft managers, and can make up to several dollars per day. They are among the lowest earners at the mine and, at this site, are often those who have migrated from other areas.
Image: Robert Carrubba
Encased in the rock
A man kneels in front of a rock slab while breaking down gold ore with a grinding stone. Next, the remaining ore is manually ground down between two rocks to release the gold. This is a slow and arduous process; one plastic basin can take several hours to
work through. Water carriers and ore porters are visible moving up and down the mine hill, in the background.
Image: Robert Carrubba
Valuable mud
A man pours ore onto a sluice. The fine ore purchased by specialist sluice teams is mixed with water and poured onto sluices. Due again to its high density, the remaining gold sediment sticks to the sluice blanket while the excess flows downhill. The sediment is then gathered and sieved in a plastic basin using mercury.
Image: Robert Carrubba
First sales
A local on-site trader assesses how much to offer for the gold a client has brought him. The gold and mercury compound seen in the trader’s plastic dish is a dull metallic grey at this point in the treatment process. Many miners will look to sell these small gold
quantities to on-site traders.
Image: Robert Carrubba
Refining gold
A 'big trader' heats the gold and nitric acid over a hot stove to rid it of any remaining impurities. Big traders deal in far larger quantities of gold than the local traders; they frequently trade more than several kilograms of gold in one week. Their profit margins
are smaller than the local traders, but they trade in greater volume, which assures them a much higher income.
Image: Robert Carrubba
Precious powder
After heating, the gold is weighed on an electric scale. At this stage, the gold has reached between 92 and 98 percent purity, depending on its origin.
Image: Robert Carrubba
Red-hot riches
Once melted, the gold is cast in an ingot mould. After removing the red-hot crucible from the furnace, a worker at the gold smelter pours the molten gold into a graphite ingot mould for casting. Inside the furnace, the gold reaches temperatures of 1,500 degrees Celsius. It takes around 20 minutes to melt several kilograms of gold.
Image: Robert Carrubba
Cooling period
A freshly cast gold ingot is deposited by a worker on the work surface; the ingot mould remains smoking hot.
Image: Robert Carrubba
Ready to go
With a gold content of 4.163 kilograms, this ingot has a market price on the London Fixing of about $167,056 (about 145,000 euros) on the day it was produced. Annual gold production in the eastern DRC has been estimated at more than 11 tons, but most continues to be smuggled out of the country. In 2015, official artisanal gold exports for the DRC were recorded at just 254 kilograms.
