In DRC, protests against the UN mission in Goma turn into looting

Hundreds of angry demonstrators ransacked and looted the installations of a United Nations mission in Goma on Monday (July 25), which they accused of ineffectiveness in the fight against armed groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After barricading the main arteries of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, these demonstrators split into two groups, storming the local MONUSCO headquarters and its logistics base outside the city center.

At the UN mission’s headquarters, protesters burned tires and plastic in front of the gate before climbing and vandalizing, an AFP correspondent said. Then they broke windows, walls and looted computers, chairs, tables and valuables. Monusco agents on the ground were evacuated by two helicopters. On the other side of town, similar scenes unfolded at a Monusco logistics base, where a uniformed student was shot in the leg by a point-blank bullet.

UN police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, before Congolese armed forces soldiers intervened. Several protestors were arrested. Government “Strongly condemns any kind of attack against UN personnel and facilities. Offenders will be punished and punished severely.Patrick Muaya, a representative of the Congolese executive, writes on Twitter.

“MONUSCO strongly condemns the attack on its building in Goma […] It was committed by a group of robbers outside the demonstration, which, moreover, was forbidden by the mayor.”– Mission writes in the press release and says for himself “I am very concerned about this very serious incident, which follows hostile remarks and open threats against the United Nations by individuals and groups..

“What are they doing to us again?” »

At a meeting held in Goma on July 15, Senate President Modeste Bahati asked MONUSCO “packing” After a twenty-two-year stay that failed to restore peace to eastern DRC, which had been destabilized for nearly three decades. On Monday, the rally was organized at the call of civil society organizations and the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the party of President Felix Szczeske.

“They said they don’t have the power to fight the M23 [Mouvement du 23-Mars, un groupe rebelle], Now what are they doing to us? », asks Shadrach Kambale, a taxi driver in Goma. Several demonstrators have criticized MONUSCO for failing to stop violence and attacks by some 100 armed groups active in the east of the country. Like Christian Kambale: Since this war broke out in the Congo, we have never seen a single piece of evidence that MONUSCO has destroyed an armed group.he worries. “We don’t want to see MONUSCO marching in the streets of Goma anymore, we don’t even want to see its planes fly over the republic’s airspace”adds Sankara Bin, another protester.

Present in the DRC since 1999, MONUC (the United Nations Mission in Congo), which became Monusco (the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the DRC) with the evolution of its mandate in 2010, is considered one of the largest and most expensive UN missions. In the world, with an annual budget of one billion dollars. The mission currently has more than 14,000 peacekeepers.