Congolese troops have killed dozens of armed youths who attacked the airport, a military barrack and state television headquarters in the capital Kinshasa on Monday.
The attack has been described as a failed assault by followers of a disgruntled religious leader.
Before transmission was shut down at the state television, the attackers shouted slogans in favour of Pastor Paul Joseph Mukungubila and against President Joseph Kabila.
The broadcaster reported that security forces had killed 46 of the attackers, while government officials said about 20 more had been arrested.
Shortly after the clashes, soldiers in the eastern mining province of Katanga attacked a church run by Mukungubila, a self-proclaimed ‘prophet’ who has railed against Kabila’s decision to make peace with Tutsi rebels in eastern Congo, saying the president was under the influence of Rwanda.
Witnesses said the fighting in the regional capital Lubumbashi quickly subsided. Security forces found arms and ammunition in the church, sources told Reuters.
“We have total control of the situation,” said government spokesman Lambert Mende, saying there were no civilian or troop casualties.
Government officials said the Kinshasa assault was carried out by untrained youths in civilian clothes with aged military equipment and appeared to be more a political statement than an attempt to seize power in the riverside city of more than 9 million people.
Some analysts in Kinshasa said the attacks could be linked to Kabila’s recent decision to replace national police chief, John Numbi, a powerful political figure from Katanga, with Charles Bisengimana, an ethnic Tutsi.
Democratic Republic of Congo is struggling to emerge from decades of violence and instability, particularly in its east, in which millions of people have died, mostly from hunger and disease. A 21,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) is stationed in the country.
A local MONUSCO staff member was wounded during shooting at the airport but was in a stable condition, a U.N. spokesman said. Some flights were diverted to Brazzaville, the capital of Congo Republic, on the other side of the Congo river.
Kabila has ruled the vast, mineral-rich African nation since 2001 following the assassination of his father Laurent.
