I was strolling into town this afternoon, when a bit of a gathering on Anspach (main road running through the city centre) caught my eye. Having my camera and always being interested in what’s going on, I walked on over. There were a few posters talking about a Congo protest today, but I couldn’t quite translate what it was in aid of…

Anyhow, there was quite a large gathering (hundred people) with banners, posters, flags and pretty much everyone was waving a wooden crucifix. The protesters were getting pretty rowdy, and some were donned in army fatigues and jumping around - not something you see every day. The police were redirecting traffic and generally trying to contain things, but it was obvious they weren’t overly comfortable with the situation (bit more stressful than policing gay pride a few weeks back).

Until I find another poster, I can only assume it was something to do with the upcoming elections in Congo - and probably not related to the recent rediscovery of the Okapi.

A picture of everyone sort of…shouting and jumping around a bit:

This guy was on the ground not moving (at all) - he was draped in a Congolese flag (I think) and people were milling around him. Whilst I was there someone draped another flag over his body, while another guy jumped around with a whistle pretending his crucifix was a gun (a whistle blow for every shot etc), this got quite irritating. Not sure if the guy was just overcome, unconscious or dead:

More crowd, and possible dead man:

If anyone knows what this protest was actually about, and what happened to this guy - I’d love to know.