At least forty-eight civilians and a policeman lost their lives on Wednesday August 30 in Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo) on the sidelines of a military operation aimed at preventing an anti-UN demonstration, according to information issued by an internal document of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC).
According to this document authenticated by military and intelligence sources, the toll of Wednesday’s operation in this region plagued by violence amounts to “48 dead” and “75 injured” on the side of the demonstrators, as well as a police officer killed .The document states that “a few bladed weapons (were) seized” and that 168 people were arrested “among them the guru” Efraimu Bisimwa, of the sect “Judaic and Messianic Natural Faith towards the Nations”, organizer of the demonstration.
The previous official toll, given on Wednesday by the army spokesman in Goma, Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike, was six protesters killed and a policeman “stoned to death”, as well as 158 arrests. In two videos filmed in a district of Goma and widely shared on social networks, we see soldiers wearing the uniform of an elite unit throwing a dozen lifeless bodies into the back of a military vehicle. Some corpses are dragged on the ground and covered in blood.
“The number of victims of the carnage carried out by the army against unarmed civilians demanding the departure of MONUSCO (UN mission in the DRC) yesterday (Wednesday) in Goma is close to 50”, declared the Fight for Change (Lucha), a pro-democracy movement born in Goma and very active in the DRC. X (formerly Twitter).
One of the leaders of the Lucha movement, Bienvenu Matumo, in a video sent to AFP denounced this “carnage” of “more than 50 civilians”. Another pro-democracy activist, Jack Sinzahera, accuses the FARDC of having carried out ” an assault on the cult’s radio station where they “killed the host and her five guests” and then “went to the church where they shot 56 people.” Both activists demanded independent investigations into the killings .
These violent events are part of a series of attacks and demonstrations against the UN mission in the DRC, accused of ineffectiveness in the fight against armed groups. In July 2022, in several towns in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, demonstrators stormed Monusco facilities. According to the authorities, 36 people, including four peacekeepers, had been killed.
In early August, the Secretary General of the United Nations announced in a report to the Security Council that Monusco was entering “in its final phase” despite a “sharply deteriorating” situation. “Regional tensions have further worsened”, “the humanitarian situation deteriorated dramatically,” “hundreds of thousands of civilians were forcibly displaced,” Guterres noted.
According to him, Monusco “remains one of the targets of the discontent and frustration of the populations who accuse it of being passive”. Ground of tension and populist speeches in the DRC, the definitive departure of the UN mission has been at the heart of debates on the future of the country for several years.
In September 2022, visiting New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi declared in an interview with France 24 that beyond the presidential election of December 2023 – where he is a candidate for his own re-election – “I believe there will be no more reason for MONUSCO to stay”. The province of North Kivu, bordering Rwanda and Uganda, has been at the heart of ongoing armed violence for nearly 30 years in eastern Congo, with repeated rebellions and constant humanitarian dramas.
