The bodies of those shot were recovered from bushes, according to the leader of a coalition of youth organizations
The number of people killed in anti-United Nations protests last week in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to 100, the Anadolu Agency reported on Monday, citing the head of a coalition of youth organizations in the country.
Lucas Pecos, the director of the Collective of Youth Solidarity Organizations in Congo-Kinshasa, DRC (COJESKI-RDC), told the Turkish outlet on Sunday that they had documented 57 corpses at the Goma Provincial Hospital’s mortuary. The toll increased after the bodies of those who were shot while fleeing from a church were recovered from the surrounding bushes, Pecos added.
“We have also confirmed that there are 43 bodies of people killed in the church and its surroundings being kept at the Katinda military barracks mortuary, bringing the total to 100. The barracks is located a few kilometers from Goma,” he said.
On Wednesday, the COJESKI-RDC accused the Congolese army of carrying out a massacre at a church in Goma, North Kivu province, as part of efforts to suppress protests against the UN’s MONUSCO peacekeeping mission in the area.
The Congolese government put the death toll at 43 on Thursday, with 56 injured. Another 158 people were arrested, the authorities said, accusing them of carrying out “actions that undermined public order.”
The UN mission condemned the killings and urged Kinshasa to launch a “prompt” and “independent” investigation into the incident.
Locals have protested the presence of the UN mission in the East African country for years, claiming that it has failed to fulfill its mandate of protecting them from years of militia violence.
Last year, a similar protest against MONUSCO killed at least 15 people, including three peacekeepers, as heavily armed UN troops clashed with hundreds of civilians wielding rocks and petrol bombs, vandalizing and torching the international mission’s buildings.
A Congolese military court sentenced 51 people to death in 2022 for their roles in the murder of two UN experts in the country.
On Thursday, the UN mission stated that it remains concerned about threats of violence and emphasized the “importance of peaceful resolution of disputes and conflicts through inclusive dialogue.”
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