Violent UN protests in Democratic Republic of Congo leave at least 15 dead

First modification: 07/27/2022 – 00:18

The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), a Peacekeeping mission since 1999, no longer has the full approval of the DRC.

Two days have passed the violent protests against the UN in the cities of Goma, capital of the North Kivu province, and Butembo, in the east of the African nation, where hundreds of protesters have attacked and looted the facilities of the Organization of Nations. Nations, in particular against the headquarters of the UN Development Program (UNDP) in Goma, where they were “repelled” by security guards, demanding that the mission leave the country.

The protests have been called by a faction of the ruling party’s youth wing, which accuses MONUSCO of failing to protect civilians against militia violence and accuses it of inefficiency in the face of insecurity in the east of the country, where they operate. at least 122 rebel groups, according to the Kivu Security Barometer (KST).

The absence of alternatives and stable methods of subsistence have pushed thousands of Congolese to take up arms and now this region is a battlefield.

This situation has its genesis in mid-July, when the president of the Congolese Senate, Modeste Bahati Lukwebo, accused MONUSCO of not being effective and demanded its withdrawal.

At least 15 dead and more than 50 injured in one day

The discontent reached its peak this Tuesday, July 26, when three MONUSCO troops and at least 12 civilians were killed. In both cities, UN peacekeepers were accused of retaliating by force.

“Mobs are throwing stones and petrol bombs, storming bases, looting and vandalizing, and setting fire to facilities,” said Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesman from New York. Some broke into the homes of UN workers who were evacuated from Goma in a convoy of vehicles escorted by the Army.

India’s foreign minister said that two of the peacekeepers who died were Indian. Meanwhile, Butembo Police Chief Paul Ngoma added that the third was Moroccan.

Ngoma also pointed out that in Butembo seven civilians were killed when UN peacekeepers started shooting and that the number of wounded was unknown.

Meanwhile, in Goma, a reporter from the Reuters news agency saw MONUSCO troops shoot two demonstrators dead. Minutes earlier, the government spokesman, Patrick Muyaya, had said that at least five people were killed and 50 were injured.

“UN forces were advised to use tear gas to disperse protesters and only fire a warning shot if necessary,” Haq said. And he said that “obviously, if there is any responsibility on the part of the UN forces for any of the injuries or any of the deaths, we’re going to follow up on that.”

Haq explained that these attacks are the product of a climate of hostility, motivated mainly from social networks, against the presence of the UN. However, he said that this does not mean that the mission has failed and that the situation would have been much more violent without the peacekeeping force, given the proliferation of armed groups in the east of the country.

The role of MONUSCO and its gradual withdrawal

Since 1998, the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been mired in a conflict fueled by rebel M23 militias and attacks by Army soldiers, despite the presence of the UN Mission, with some 14,000 troops deployed.

“We’ve been doing everything we can, not just for years but really for decades to try to bring stability to eastern Congo,” Haq said.

The resurgence of these clashes in recent months has displaced thousands of people. Attacks by militants linked to the self-styled Islamic State Group have also continued, despite a year-long state of emergency and joint operations by the Congolese and Ugandan armies against them.

According to Muyaya, MONUSCO’s withdrawal process “has already begun”, after its mandate was renewed for another year by the UN Security Council in December 2021.

With Reuters and EFE