LUANSHYA residents Sunday ran amok, destroying Congolese-owned shops following the killing of Zambian truck driver Patrick Mwila by a Congolese soldier in that country on Thursday.
The body of Mwila, 30, a resident of Mikomfwa D section in Luanshya, arrived Sunday from Congo and taxi drivers started protests early in the morning, moving with full-beam headlamps on their cars.
Mikomfwa residents joined in the protests, blocking roads and setting tyres ablaze while targeting shops owned by Congolese nationals at Buseko market.
Police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the protestors which became more hostile.
Overwhelmed by the hostilities, police officers, who were using a Toyota Land Cruiser, desperately fired more canisters within the compounds. The action further incensed the residents, who pelted the police with stones and any objects they could lay their hands on.
“Zambia is our country, we are a free nation. Congolese are always killing our people and you come and start throwing tear gas in our homes. You will kill all of us and there will be no peace,” an angry woman shouted at the police as she dared them to run over her whilst holding the bull bar of the police vehicle.
Police, who seemed to have run out of tear gas, fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd, which was now growing bigger.
Police retreated with a view to reinforcing its presence whilst taxi drivers, who had covered their cars with fresh tree branches, continued speeding around the compounds.
Whilst all this was going on, protestors claimed that Mwila was being buried at the graveyard.