Anti-Rwanda protests hit DR Congo cities
Hundreds of people hit the streets in two cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, journalists said, to protest neighbouring Rwanda's alleged meddling in the country's affairs.
Relations between the two central African states, which have long been tense, boiled over last week after DRC accused Rwanda of backing the resurgent M23 rebel group active in its volatile east.
DRC's government suspended flights from Rwanda's national carrier on Saturday as part of the diplomatic spat, and detained two Rwandan soldiers it accused of trespassing on Congolese soil before releasing them on Monday.
On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Rwandan embassy in DRC's capital Kinshasa.
"We have come to demand the expulsion of the Rwandan ambassador and the severing of diplomatic relations, the aggressor country," said Bienvenu Matumo, from the Congolese rights group Lucha.
Several hundred people also demonstrated in the eastern city of Bukavu, a city on the Rwandan border, more than 1,500 kilometres from the capital.
An correspondent there said the protesters toted banners bearing pro-military slogans and chanted "Rwandans go home".
