Environmental campaigners in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday said they had faced threats due to their opposition to last month's auction of 30 oil and gas blocks.

In a statement, eight environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Rainforest Foundation and the Network for the Conservation and Restoration of Forest Ecosystems (CREF) said campaigners in DRC were facing "direct threats".

"Some statements by certain ministers of the Congolese government have been fanning the flames," they added, urging authorities to "embrace a more tolerant discourse and take other measures to protect the rights of environmental defenders."

The groups said that campaigners had received a barrage of threats on social media, including accusations of treason, death threats and menacing anonymous phone calls.

In launching the auction of licensing rights for 27 oil and three gas blocks, the Kinshasa government promised to ensure environmental norms were respected.

President Felix Tshisekedi says exploration work will be carried out "using the most modern technological means that protect the environment" and drilling will be subject to a plan designed to minimise harmful effects on ecosystems.

Tshisekedi also says oil and gas production will allow the DRC to reduce its reliance on mining -- to the benefit of the Congolese people, some three-quarters of whom live on under $1.9 a day, according to World Bank figures, despite huge reserves of minerals, ranging from gold and copper to cobalt.

But, of the 27 oil blocks, nine are in the huge "central basin" rainforest and peatlands region in the west of the country.

The plan to open up portions of the world's second-biggest rainforest to allow drilling liable to release carbon into the atmosphere is controversial.

Campaigners have warned that the move could have disastrous consequences for local people, in an area blessed with rich biodiversity whose peatland helps to retain tens of billions of carbon deposits.

A petition to end oil and gas development in the DRC that NGOs launched ahead of the auction has attracted more than 100,000 signatories.

It warns of the effect it could have on precious ecosystems such as the Virunga National Park and other areas of the Congo basin.

Irene Wabiwa, international project leader for the Congo forest campaign at Greenpeace Africa, last month said "this auction not only makes a mockery of DRC's posturing as a solution country for the climate crisis -- it exposes Congolese people to corruption, violence, and poverty that inevitably come with the curse of oil, as well as more heat waves and less rains for all Africans."

Campaigners say last year saw 227 land and environmental defenders killed, the worst figure on record.

Noting the June murders of Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips in the Amazon rainforest, the campaigners on Monday urged Congolese authorities "to guarantee freedom of speech and that not a single one of those who rise for the environment shall fall."

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