Violent anti-United Nations rallies that erupted in the eastern DRC city of Goma on Monday 26 July, left at least five people dead and about 50 others injured by Tuesday, a government official reported. In another city of Butembo, ten people died including a UN soldier and two UN police of Indian nationality were shot.
According to AFP, the total deathtoll from DRC anti-UN protests had increased to 36 by August 2nd.
The deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a statement to reporters in New York said that the death of peacekeepers may constitute a war crime and called on the Congolese authorities to bring perpetrators to justice.
According to Reuters, protesters flung rocks, trashed, and set fire to the agency’s offices, and UN peacekeepers allegedly responded with force. This is not the first time that protests against the UN missions in the DRC have broken out. In 2019 protests stemmed from anger with what many see as an inadequate response by UN forces to insurgent violence.
The anti-UN demonstrations started on Monday when hundreds of people attacked and looted a MONUSCO warehouse in Goma, demanding that the mission leave the nation. The demonstrations flared up once more on Tuesday.
A Reuters reporter on the site reported that peacekeepers shot at the crowd with live ammunition and tear gas, killing two people and injuring at least two more. Thousands of people have been displaced by resurgent skirmishes between local troops and the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo.
In addition, attacks by terrorists affiliated with Islamic State have persisted despite a year-long state of emergency and coordinated operations by the Congolese and Ugandan militaries to combat them.
