Death toll from anti-UN protests in DR Congo rises to 100

KAMPALA, Uganda

The death toll from anti-UN protests last week in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to 100, the head of a platform of youth organizations said Sunday.

Lucas Pecos, director of the Collective of Youth Solidarity Organizations in Congo-Kinshasa DRC (COJESKI-RDC), which accused the army of committing a massacre last Wednesday at a church in the city of Goma in North Kivu province, said it has counted 100 bodies so far.

Pecos told Anadolu that the number of bodies at Goma Provincial Hospital’s mortuary had risen to 57 after the corpses of some of those shot while fleeing from the church were collected from the surrounding bushes.

“We have also confirmed that there are 43 bodies of people killed in the church and its surroundings being kept at the Katinda military barracks mortuary, bringing the total to 100. The barracks is located a few kilometers from Goma,” he added.

A local leader in Goma, Peter Sangara, told Anadolu they have also recorded 100 people killed. He said the bodies are being kept in the two mortuaries.

Pecos said earlier that those killed belonged to an organization called Wazalendo, which means “patriots” and a religion called Messiahans. He said they planned to demonstrate against the presence of troops from the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the East African Community in DR Congo

He said they were in their church making plans to attack the MONUSCO base when soldiers entered and shot and killed most of them.

The UN and Human Rights Watch have condemned the killings.