Protests in eastern DR Congo after new election delay

Police fired teargas and shots were heard as hundreds of people in eastern DR Congo protested yesterday at a move to delay upcoming elections in their region, an AFP reporter said.

Demonstrations erupted a day after the Democratic Republic of Congo's national election commission announced that Sunday's nationwide vote would be postponed in several troubled areas until March.

However, the vote will continue to take place in the rest of the country as scheduled, and the next president will be sworn in on January 18, it said.

In the province of North Kivu, the region most affected by the decision, several hundred demonstrators gathered in the administrative district of the city of Beni.