At least 48 civilians and a policeman were killed yesterday in Goma, during an army operation to prevent a demonstration against the UN peacekeeping force in DR Congo, according to an internal document of the armed forces of the African country which was able to consult AFP yesterday Thursday.

According to this document, confirmed to be authentic by AFP military and intelligence sources, the toll of yesterday’s operation in this violence-ridden area is “48 dead” and “75 wounded” among the ranks of protesters, while a policeman was also killed.

The text clarifies that “some knives were confiscated” and 168 people were arrested, “among them the guru” Efremou Bishimoua, of the “natural Jewish and Messianic faith to the nations” sect, organizer of the banned demonstration.

In a statement released last night, the government in Kinshasa spoke of “43 dead, 56 wounded and 158 arrested, including the sect leader.”

He added that he supports the “investigation carried out” by the military authorities to “attribute responsibility” and “those responsible to account for their actions in justice”.

In two videos taken in Goma and already widely circulated on social networking sites, soldiers in elite unit uniforms can be seen loading around ten bodies into the back of a military truck. They lie on the ground covered in blood.

“The number of victims of the massacre committed by the army against unarmed civilians demanding the withdrawal of MONUSCO (the United Nations peacekeeping mission in DR Congo) yesterday (Wednesday) in Goma is approaching fifty,” the movement said. Struggle for Change (Lutte pour le changement, LUCHA), founded in Goma and active throughout the country, via X (formerly Twitter).

“Other bodies were taken and hidden in a military hospital at the Katido base,” in the center of the city, he added.

Target of discontent

An executive of the Lutcha movement, Bienweni Matumo, denounced in a video he sent to AFP the “massacre” with victims of “more than 50 civilians”.

Another pro-democracy campaigner, Jack Sinzahera, accused the army of “raiding the sect’s radio station”, where he “killed the presenter and her five guests”, before “going to the church and shooting 56 people”.

The two activists demanded independent investigations into the massacres.

“Congolese security forces shot and killed dozens of protesters and injured dozens of others” and also “arrested several dozen people,” the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said last night.

Members of the DRC’s army “appear to have opened fire on the crowd to prevent a demonstration, which is an extremely barbaric way of enforcing a ban,” commented Thomas Fessi, the chief African country researcher at the US-based human rights NGO. .

HRW also ruled that “senior military officers who ordered the use of unlawful lethal force should be relieved of their duties, investigated and held accountable for their actions in public and fair trials.”

The violent incidents are part of a series of attacks and protests against the UN mission in DR Congo, which has been accused of ineffectiveness in the fight against armed groups.

In July 2022, in cities in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, protesters attacked MONUSCO facilities. According to the authorities, 36 people, including 4 blue-collar workers, were killed.

In early August, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported in a report to the Security Council that MONUSCO had entered its “final phase” despite a “deterioration” of the situation.

“Regional tensions are worsening further”, “the humanitarian situation has become much worse”, “hundreds of thousands of citizens are being forcibly displaced”, noted Antonio Guterres.

According to him, MONUSCO “remains one of the targets of the discontent and despair of the population”, who accuses it “of showing passivity”.

The cause of convulsions and populist discourse in DR Congo, the final withdrawal of the UN mission has been at the center of discussions about the future of the huge country for years.

In September 2022, visiting New York for the United Nations General Assembly, President Félix Tshisekendi stated during an interview he granted to France 24 that after the elections of December 2023 – in which he will seek re-election – ” I believe that there will no longer be any reason for MONUSCO to remain”.

North Kivu province, which neighbors Rwanda and Uganda, is at the heart of the thirty-year-long armed conflict in eastern DR Congo, with repeated insurgencies and repeated humanitarian tragedies.