AA / Kinshasa / Pascal Mulegwa
Four demonstrators died from electrocution while demonstrating against the UN presence in Uvira, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the authorities deplored 15 deaths in two days of popular mobilization against the Blue Helmets.
“They died electrocuted by a severed cable during the dispersal of the crowds,” Kiki Kifara, deputy mayor of Uvira, the second largest city in South Kivu province, told Anadolu Agency.
Hundreds of inhabitants of this city demonstrated in front of the headquarters of the United Nations mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) in Uvira. They erected barricades and disrupted socio-economic activities, the mayor reported.
On Tuesday, in Butembo, the second city of the neighboring province of North Kivu, three peacekeepers and seven civilians were killed during demonstrations against the UN presence.
In the city of Goma, where the series of demonstrations started, the authorities deplored the death of 5 demonstrators and around sixty injured.
A total of 19 people died in three days of demonstrations against the UN accused of not having neutralized armed groups in the eastern Congolese facade.
UNICEF condemned, in a statement on Wednesday, “the instrumentalization of children for political purposes and called on the authorities, members of civil society and parents to keep children safe from demonstrations in order to protect them” .
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, condemned “strongly the deadly attack against blue helmets”.
The Congolese government has announced an investigation to establish responsibility for the shots fired at demonstrators and peacekeepers.
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