Kinshasa, August 31 (QNA) - At least seven people were killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Wednesday during a demonstration against the UN peacekeeping mission and other foreign organizations.
The Congolese army said that at least six protesters and one policeman were killed in the eastern Congolese city of Goma when the demonstration turned violent.
Six protesters had been killed in the ensuing violence and 158 were arrested, the army said in a statement.
A UN source said the death toll was at least eight, including two soldiers and a policeman.
Organizers had called for the demonstration to be peaceful, but images circulating on social media showed men and women in civilian clothes armed with sticks and stones beating a policeman tied up on the ground. It was not possible to verify the images and footage independently.
Since 2022, the United Nations MONUSCO mission has faced protests spurred partly by complaints that the peacekeepers have failed to protect civilians against years of militia violence.
An anti-MONUSCO protest in July 2022 resulted in more than 15 deaths, including three peacekeepers in Goma and the city of Butembo.
The DRC is witnessing political tensions and security and economic crisis, which raise great concern in the Sub-Saharan Africa's largest country. Dozens of local and foreign armed groups are active in the eastern part of the country, a result of regional conflicts that took place in the 1990s and early 21st century.
Nearly 1 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been displaced in 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM). (QNA)