KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (BNO NEWS) -- Six unknown gunmen were killed Sunday afternoon in an attack on the residence of the Democratic Republic Congo President, Joseph Kabila, in Kinshasa, officials said.

In his address on national television, the Congolese Minister of Communication and Media, Lambert Mende Omalanga, said that unidentified individuals attacked the residence of the head of state and exchanged gunfire with presidential guards, during which some of the attackers were killed.

He invited the population to remain calm and urged anyone who holds information about the attackers to inform the security forces, the Congolese Press Agency reported.

Omalanga also condemned the act since people are preparing to go to presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in November 2011.

The attack comes three weeks after a group of armed men attacked the airport of the city of Lubumbashi in the southeastern region of Katanga, before being defeated by the armed forces, the agency reported.

Kabila took power in 2001 after the assassination of his father, and was then elected as president in 2006.

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