Two people were killed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday in fresh protests at failures to root out a notorious armed group, a military official, Kumbu Ngoma, who spoke to AFP said.
According to the report by AFP, the death toll was also confirmed by a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO
Ngoma said that the two died when demonstrations erupted in Beni and the town of Butembo, 50 kilometres away.
For more than two decades, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia group originally from Uganda, has been plaguing the region.
However, on October 30, when the Congolese armed forces announced they had launched an offensive to wipe out armed groups in eastern DRC, dozens of civilians have been killed in what commentators say is a warning by the ADF not to collaborate with the authorities.
After eight more civilians were killed in Beni late Sunday, crowds took to the streets, angered at the perceived failures by the Congolese authorities and UN to quell the ADF.
They set fire to Beni town hall and stormed one of two UN camps, where they torched an office.
Through its official Twitter page, MONUSCO said it would ‘strengthen cooperation with its partners and work closely with authorities to jointly find solutions for the people of Beni.’
#DRC #MONUSCO will strengthen cooperation with its partners and work closely with the authorities to jointly find solutions for the people of Beni.
— MONUSCO (@MONUSCO) November 25, 2019
