DR Congo: 2 killed in protests against UN peacekeepers

By James Tasamba

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (AA) - At least two people were killed Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo as security forces engaged in running street battles with protestors, authorities said, as protests against a UN mission’s failure to protect civilians from rebel attacks entered a second day in Beni, North Kivu province.

The protests spread to the cities of Butembo and Goma, where demonstrators attempted to find their way to a UN base near the airport before being repulsed by government soldiers, local authorities said.

One protester died of his injuries during demonstrations in Butembo.

The protesters, most of them young people, tried to attack several UN staff at the Kikyo reception center, said Butembo mayor Sylvain Kanyamanda.

Police used tear gas and warning shots to disperse them.

Gunshots were heard from morning until noon in several parts of Butembo.

The protest in Butembo was organized by local pressure group Veranda Mutsanga.

The protestors set up barricades on the main roads entering the city, paralyzing all activities as shops, schools and the central market remained closed, according to Kanyamanda.

In the Kihinga area of the Bulengera commune, a vehicle believed to belong to a Congolese army officer was burned by unknown assailants earlier in the day, news site Actualite.cd reported.

In Beni, where a town hall was torched Monday, businesses remained paralyzed as banks, schools and fuel stations remained closed.

In the afternoon, angry protestors defied the police and army to march with the body of a protester shot in the morning. They attempted to take the body to the residence of the mayor of Beni, Nyonyi Bwanakawa, in Matonge district before they were repelled by the police, according to the local news site.

Local authorities said four people were killed during Monday’s protests in Beni, where protestors stormed an office of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the UN peacekeeping force, in Boikene district.

The residents are protesting a recent attack by Ugandan rebel group the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in which eight people were killed and nine kidnapped in Masiani district in Beni, North Kivu province.

They accuse MONUSCO and Congolese forces of “inaction,” with some demanding the UN mission leave the country.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday that Ebola responders in Beni were on lockdown amid gunfire, riots and civil strife.

The WHO and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Tuesday they had evacuated dozens of their staff working on the Ebola epidemic from Beni due to the worsening security situation.

The WHO said 49 of its nonessential staff were flown to the eastern city of Goma, leaving 71, while UNICEF temporarily relocated 27 staff, leaving 12 in Beni.

More than 3,100 Ebola cases have been confirmed since an outbreak was declared in August 2018 and more than 2,100 deaths recorded.

But insecurity in the region is hampering efforts to contain the outbreak.

At least 81 civilians have been killed since Nov. 5 in Beni, according to figures provided by Kivu Security, a joint project of the Congo Study Group and Human Right Watch.