Anti-UN demonstrations, which took place in several cities in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, killed a total of 36 people, including four peacekeepers and 32 demonstrators, in one week, according to the provisional official report of the Congolese authorities. .

These figures were given, Tuesday, August 2, by a special government commission which established "a heavy toll of 36 dead distributed as follows: 13 dead in Goma, 13 dead in Butembo including four blue helmets, four dead in Uvira, three dead in Kanyabayonga and three dead in Kasindi," wrote Minister Patrick Muyaya, spokesperson for the Congolese government after a crisis meeting.

The initial death toll from the protests was at least 19.

"In addition to this, there are nearly 170 counted wounded," said Patrick Muyaya, asserting that "these serious and outrageous incidents [had] undermined the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Congo at the Kasindi border post", at the border with Uganda. 

Border clashes

On Sunday, "Tanzanian" blue helmets, according to Captain Antony Mualushayi, army spokesman in Beni, returning from leave in Uganda opened fire before opening the barrier and crossing the Congolese border at the border post of Kasindi, in Beni.

Two people were killed on the spot and 15 injured, one of whom succumbed to his injuries, bringing the toll to three dead and 14 injured.

Since July 25, demonstrators, who accuse the peacekeepers of ineffectiveness in their mission to neutralize the hundred local and foreign armed groups, have ransacked and looted the installations of the UN mission in the DRC (Monusco) in Goma and Butembo.

In a telephone conversation with Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, President Félix Tshisekedi recalled that the withdrawal of the March 23 Movement (M23), a rebellion supported by Rwanda, according to the Congolese authorities, was "a necessary condition for the drop in tension," said Patrick Muyaya.

With AFP

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