Police on Monday dispersed about 100 demonstrators in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) eastern city of Beni, a day after UN peacekeepers returning to duty killed three people and wounded more than a dozen at the border with Uganda.
Dalzon Mikundi, president of the Beni Urban Youth Council, said they want the UN to cover medical care for the victims wounded by peacekeepers amid demonstrations demanding that the UN force leave the DR Congo.
Tensions between the population in restive eastern DR Congo and the UN peacekeeping force have risen dramatically in the past week or so, with more than 20 killed in protests calling for the force to leave.
Photo: EPA-EFE
On Sunday, UN peacekeepers opened fire on civilians in Kasindi, a border town with Uganda in DR Congo’s North Kivu province.
“I call on the youth of Beni to put pressure peacefully and not to fall into vandalism,” Mikundi said. “I also call on our government to play its role well in securing its population so as not to rely on foreign forces.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was outraged by the shooting in Kasindi.
“The secretary-general is both saddened and dismayed by the loss of life and serious injuries sustained during this incident. He expresses his deepest condolences to the affected families, the people of the DRC [DR Congo] and the Congolese government,” a UN statement said.
Guterres also welcomed investigations into the incident and said the peacekeeper’s nation has been contacted to quickly begin “judicial proceedings with the participation of victims and witnesses so that appropriate sanctions can be handed down.”
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the secretary-general spoke to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi on Monday morning and apologized for Sunday’s incident and conveyed his condolences.
To bring about stability in eastern Congo, “effective dialogue” is needed and for that to happen the UN demands “the unconditional withdrawal of the M23 group” and calls on all armed groups to cease all forms of violence, he said.
Guterres said the UN is totally committed to coordinating and working with the DR Congo armed forces, Haq said.
Effective dialogue is needed to bring stability to the eastern region, and for that to happen, we demand the unconditional withdrawal of the M23 group and call on all armed groups to cease all forms of violence, he said.
Meanwhile, the UN mission in the DR Congo on Monday paid homage in Goma to the soldiers killed amid demonstrations last week in Goma, Butembo and other places in the eastern region of the country.
UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo head Bintou Keita, as well as UN Undersecretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix attended the ceremony.
The federal government sent a delegation to Goma over the weekend to visit the UN facilities and meet with the protesters to find a solution to the crisis.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
RSS