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Two Killed During Anti-UN Protests in Eastern Congo Protests, Officials Say

Reuters

   Atleast two people were killed during violent protestsFridayagainst the
   United Nations peacekeeping mission in easternDemocratic Republic of
   Congo, local officials said.

   Troops attached to the U.N. mission, known as MONUSCO,killed one person
   during a protest in the rural area ofOicha,its mayor NicolasKikukutold
   Reuters.

   "They[the protesters]set fire to two bridges that lead
   tothe[peacekeepers']base,"Kikukusaid. "The MONUSCOpeacekeepers did not
   accept that and opened fire directly on thedemonstrators."

   Rosette Kavula, the deputy administrator of Beni territory,whereOichais
   located, and Philippe Bonane, a local activist,also said peacekeepers
   had killed a protester.

   The incident came after days of protests in several easternCongo cities
   by young people angered over the 12,000-strong U.N.Mission'sfailure to
   prevent a wave of civilian killings byarmed groups.

   MONUSCO spokesman Mathias Gillmann said the missionwasinvestigating
   what had happened inOicha.

   The other fatality occurred when protesters closed a road tothe city of
   Beni, blocking the path of an ambulance carrying thebody of a man
   killed earlier in a suspected rebel attack,saidlocal army spokesman
   AntonyMwalushayi.

   "That's how a woman was hit and died on the scene, andherbaby was
   seriously wounded,"Mwalushayitold Reuters. He said aninvestigation had
   been opened into the incident.

   At least seven people were killed in the suspectedrebelattack, which
   officials blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces(ADF), a Ugandan
   Islamist group that has operated onCongolesesoil for decades.

   More than 300 people have been killed so far this year inviolence in
   eastern Congo, which is in part an unresolvedlegacyof a civil war that
   officially ended in 2003.

   U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed to Congo since 1999 atthe
   invitation of the government.

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