SECURITY forces killed at least seven people and one or two police died amid violence on yesterday as more than a thousand people demonstrated in the Congolese capital Kinshasa.

The demonstrators were protesting against President Laurent Kabila's refusal to step down from power despite his term in office terminating in December 2016.

UN Congo mission spokeswoman Florence Marchal said that at least 82 people had been arrested across the country in connection with Sunday's protests.

She condemned the use of force against peaceful demonstrators and suppression of democratic rights.

Catholic churches and activists had called for peaceful demonstrations after Sunday mass, a year after the church oversaw the signing of an accord that set a new election date to ease tensions in the mineral-rich country.

President Kabila had agreed to have an election by the end of 2017 but the election commission says a vote cannot be held until December 2018.