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| - Nine people were injured, seven of them seriously, when police in DR Congo's capital broke up a protest by several hundred university students over tuition fees, police said. Eleven people, five of them students, were arrested in a demonstration at the University of Kinshasa, the country's largest, police added. A number of buildings, including a bank, were vandalised, and car was set on fire, they said. The demonstration was sparked by a surge in tuition fees, which are calculated against the US dollar. The national currency has slumped from 920 to 1,700 Congolese francs per dollar -- as a result, fees have risen from 253,000 francs for the last academic year to 485,000 francs for the present one. The minister for youth affairs, Billy Kambale, said the police had intervened on the campus itself, which was "unacceptable" as there was a university force whose task was to provide security. But Kinshasa Police chief Sylvano Kasongo rejected that claim. Police dispersed the demonstrators after the protest left the campus, he told AFP. "As long as they demonstrate inside the campus, we will not intervene," Kasono said. "But if they leave the campus, enabling criminals in the local neighbourhoods to disturb public order without the express authorisation of the city governor, we will prevent them." mbb-bmb/stb/ri/boc
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