Kathmandu: Four people protesting against a United Nations peacekeeping mission were killed on Wednesday in the Congolese city of Uvira when troops fired warning shots which hit an electric cable that fell on them, officials said.
As reported by the Reuters, three U.N. peacekeepers and at least 12 civilians were killed on Tuesday in protests against the mission in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUSCO, which protesters accuse of failing to protect them from militia violence.
The protests had mostly fizzled out on Wednesday in the cities of Goma and Butembo but had spread to Uvira, in South Kivu province, where crowds threw rocks at a MONUSCO compound.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday condemned the violence and called on the government to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The U.N. mission, which has around 12,400 troops in the country and costs more than $1 billion per year, has been in the process of gradually withdrawing for several years.
The U.N. children’s agency said on Wednesday that many children had been manipulated into joining the protests and were exposed to violence.
(News Source: Reuters)