DRC: after massacres, anger in Beni against officials and the UN

Motorcade blocked, peacekeepers singled out, shops closed: residents of Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, expressed anger over officials and the United Nations on Thursday, the day after a new massacre of civilians .

Protesters have blocked the procession of the governor of North Kivu visiting Beni by placing pieces of wood and stones on his way, said a correspondent of AFP.

Protesters chanted slogans hostile to the authorities, refusing to listen to Governor Carly Nzanzu who was trying to convince them to clear the way for him to continue on his way.

The mayor of Beni, policemen and soldiers had to intervene to spawn a passage to the procession of the provincial authority.

In front of a blue helmet base, young protesters, some dressed in black, threw pieces of wood on blue helmets, before being dispersed by the police.

« We do not want to see any peacekeepers here because they could not protect civilians. What is their mission here at home? We came to chase them, « said Héritier Katseke, a demonstrator near the peacekeepers’ base.

In Boikene neighborhood, in the outskirts of Beni where ADF militia killed civilians on Wednesday, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who had barricaded roads.

Shops and schools closed in Beni
The center of Beni was on strike: closed shops, schools and administrations, no public transport.

Tires were burned in many places by angry people. At least seven civilians were massacred in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in a district of Beni in a new slaughter attributed to the ADF.

More than 60 civilians have been massacred in the Beni area since early November after the October 30 announcement of « major offensives » by the army against Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militias.

Originally, the ADF are Ugandan Muslim rebels hostile to President Yoweri Museveni, settled in eastern DRC since 1995.

A quarter of a century later, they no longer seem to attack Uganda and claim none of their massacres in the DRC. Their recruitment extended to other nationalities.