At least five people killed, 50 injured during anti-UN protests in eastern Congo

Kathmandu: In Congo, at least five people were killed and about 50 injured during anti-UN protests in the eastern city of Goma. In a tweet, government spokesman Muyaya added that security forces had fired “warning shots” at protesters in Goma to stop attacks on UN personnel.

The statement said that hundreds of people yesterday blocked roads and chanted hostile slogans before storming the UN peacekeeping mission’s headquarters and a logistical base.

Protesters smashed windows and looted valuables, while helicopters airlifted UN staff from the premises, and security forces fired teargas in a bid to push them back. The unrest in Goma continued today, with the fatal shooting of a man near the logistical base.

The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUSCO, is one of the world’s biggest peacekeeping operations. But it has regularly come under criticism in the country’s troubled east for its perceived inability to stem decades-long bloodshed.