DRC: three dead in clashes between blue helmets, soldiers and civilians near Goma

Monusco soldiers, October 23, 2014, in Beni in the DRC.

(illustration) AFP / ALAIN WANDIMOYI

Text by: RFI Follow

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Three civilians died Tuesday evening, February 7, in eastern DRC, north of the city of Goma, in the attack on a UN convoy.

Angry demonstrators attacked a convoy of peacekeepers from the United Nations mission (Monusco), in a climate of protest by the populations against the advance of the M23 rebels for months around Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu.

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With our correspondent in Kinshasa,

According to Monusco, its peacekeepers were returning from a food supply mission in Kiwanja and were going

, accompanied by Congolese soldiers, on Tuesday, February 7.

Not far from the city of Munigi, they were besieged by demonstrators who had previously barricaded the road with large stones, thus forcing the procession to stop.

Still according to Monusco, in the aftermath, the attackers set fire to four trucks of the convoy before stealing their cargo.

Three people died during the clashes, while the Blue Helmets and the Congolese soldiers tried to protect the convoy.

In its press release, Monusco does not specify the source of the bullets fired, but civil society says it has no doubts.

For her, the three victims were mowed down by bullets fired by peacekeepers and their Congolese partners.

Monusco announces that it has opened a joint investigation with the Congolese authorities to determine the circumstances of these deaths, which it considers " 

 ".

#MONUSCO deplores the death of three demonstrators during the attack on its convoy in #Munigi, Province of #NordKivu.

pic.twitter.com/7YpJ01jgK3

— MONUSCO (@MONUSCO) February 7, 2023

Last November, another convoy of Blue Helmets was targeted by a group of civilians in the same context of the breakthrough of the M23.

Tension was still high in the region against foreign forces on Tuesday evening, following two days of violent protests called by civil society pressure groups.

The Congolese armed forces organized a " 

" in Goma on Tuesday to  " 

 ", show that the army is there, " 

 ", according to one of its spokespersons. .

► To read also: Conflict between the DRC and the M23: "The information war creates a distortion of the real situation"

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