KINSHASA, Congo (AP) – Days of clashes between security forces and demonstrators claiming electoral fraud have left nearly 100 people dead in several southwestern Congo towns, humanitarian and rights groups said Friday.

Demonstrators rampaged through the town of Moanda, setting fire to police posts and several government buildings, prompting security forces to intervene, said Willy Iboma, who heads the local Foundation for the Defense of Children’s Rights.

The soldiers used automatic weapons and rockets, he said.

“Until now, bodies are still being gathered from the streets and the bush,” Iboma told The Associated Press by telephone from the town, adding that the violence reached its peak Thursday.

The protests, which spread to at least four other towns in the Bas Congo province, were led by Bundu Dia Kongo, a group that supports former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, who lost presidential elections last year to Joseph Kabila.

The protesters have complained about legislative and gubernatorial elections last month. Bemba won a senatorial seat, but Kabila supporters won a legislative majority.

Bemba condemned the killing of protesters by police. “It constitutes an abuse of power,” he said in a statement broadcast Friday evening on local television.

Bemba’s militia clashed with Kabila’s forces twice last year as results were announced in the initial presidential vote and the runoff. However, Bemba accepted a supreme court ruling that Kabila was the rightful winner.

Despite the outbreaks of violence, the Central African country has been praised for making significant strides toward democracy. During a visit last week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held Congo’s path out war and dictatorship as a sign of hope for the rest of the continent.

Dolly Ibefo, of the rights group Voice for the Voiceless, said the deaths were mostly demonstrators shot by police or soldiers in several towns. Several soldiers and police also died, and at least 30 people were wounded.

Ibefo said the assessment was based on witness testimony and local rights officials in the troubled southwest province. The area was reported quiet Friday.

Government officials could not be reached for comment.

Kemal Saiki, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo, said the U.N. had not obtained any official toll. The bulk of the U.N.’s 18,000 peacekeepers are deployed on the other side of the country, which is wracked by sporadic fighting involving militias and renegade army units.

Local radio stations said shops and street stalls were shuttered in the towns Thursday, and resident took cover as protesters barricaded streets with the shells of destroyed cars.