Fighting has rocked the capital of Congo-Brazzaville, shattering a relative calm that had followed President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s re-election in a disputed poll last month.
The intermittent gunfire was heard in the southern Bacongo and Makelekele neighbourhoods of Brazzaville early on Monday morning.
Former members of the “Ninja” militia that fought Sassou Nguesso in a 1997 civil war raided and set alight military, police and local government offices on Monday but the attacks have been contained, government spokesman Thierry Moungalla said.
Opposition leader Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas came second in the 20 March election and his father led the Ninjas during the civil war. Kolelas was not involved in the attacks, an aide said.
“The government … does not yet have proof that the candidates or their supporters were involved in this affair but … investigations are under way,” Moungalla said on state television.
The Ninjas were one of the main anti-government forces in the 1998-99 civil war. Led by renegade pastor Frédéric Bitsangou, they signed 1999 ceasefire agreements but took up arms again in the early 2000s to demand a role in military and political decisions. A peace deal was signed in 2003 between the militia and government. The militia under Bitsangou was eventually disbanded and he was later brought into the government as a minister.
The fighting between security forces and unidentified gunmen was some of the worst to hit Brazzaville since 1997, when Sassou Nguesso returned to power after months of fighting between rival militia groups in the capital.
He had previously ruled the country from 1979 until he lost an election in 1992. Opposition supporters say they are frustrated that one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers can extend a tenure that has already totalled 32 years.
Witnesses said young opposition supporters chanted “Sassou, leave!”, erected barricades near the main roundabout in southern Brazzaville’s Makelekele neighbourhood and set fire to the local mayor’s office and police headquarters.
Hundreds of residents of southern Brazzaville fled their neighbourhoods on foot toward the north of the city.
Dozens of heavily armed Republican Guard troops and police later headed towards the Kingouari neighbourhood of southern Brazzaville, where isolated gunfire persisted in the afternoon.
Sassou Nguesso pushed through constitutional changes in an October referendum to remove age and term limits that would have prevented him from standing again.
At least 18 people were killed by security forces during opposition demonstrations against the referendum changes.
Opposition candidates say the March vote was a fraud and have called for a campaign of civil disobedience. A general strike last week was held in southern Brazzaville but was ignored in the north of the city, where Sassou Nguesso is popular.