GOMA: The death toll in the Thursday’s Anti-UN Protest Crackdown in DR Congo has Reached 48, the officials said Friday.
Local authorities on Thursday said that more than 48 people were killed and 56 injured in an army crackdown on anti-UN demonstration in the eastern Congolese city of Goma.
According to media, Congolese forces forcibly dispersed the protest demonstration against the UN peacekeeping mission and other foreign organizations after footage of an assault on a policeman circulated on different platforms of social media. However, the international media said that it was unable to verify the footage of the incident.
Earlier, local authorities claimed the police personnel was stoned to death and that six protesters were also killed when the army personnel intervened.
In a statement on Thursday, the government said that the death toll stood at forty-three, while 158 people were apprehended. The authorities said a military probe had also been opened over the matter.
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The chief of the local branch of the International Red Cross in Goma, Anne-Sylvie Linder, told the media that her clinic has received a high number of persons with serious gunshot wounds after the protest demonstration in the city. She added that some people were dead when they arrived in her clinic.
The United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo, expressed its condolences and said it remained worried by the threats of violence in the area. An anti-UN mission protest in July 2022 resulted in 15 deaths, including 3 peacekeepers in Goma.
