July 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Hundreds of women have demonstrated outside the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) to demand an investigation into the murder of opposition spokesman Chérubin Okende.
The lifeless body of Okende, spokesman for the Together for the Republic party led by Moise Katumbi, was found in the middle of the month inside his vehicle on a central street in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, with multiple gunshot wounds. Okende had previously served as a deputy and Minister of Transport.
“We have come to demand an independent investigation into the murder of Chérubin Okende to find out who gave the orders, who complied with them, who participated directly or indirectly in this murder,” Annie Faray, coordinator of the Association of Women for the Liberation of Salomon Kalonda, Katumbi’s main adviser, detained for almost two months, told Radio Okapi last Friday.
Faray explained that the protest took place in front of the MONUSCO headquarters in Kinshasa, understanding that the UN mission is not doing anything to clarify what Katumbi described as “a political assassination.”
“We reserve the right to take legal action against the UN mission, including at the level of the International Criminal Court, and against all these embassies that surround us, and that are not doing anything to help people in danger,” Faray lamented.
