Installations of the United Nations mission (Monusco) in Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo were looted by angry demonstrators, ten days after a call by the President of the Senate for the departure of the peacekeepers, noted this a correspondent on Monday.
After having barricaded the main arteries of Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu, hundreds of demonstrators split into two groups stormed the local headquarters of the UN mission as well as its logistics base located outside the center of the city.
Looting and breakage
At Monusco headquarters, these angry protesters burned tires and plastic objects in front of the gate and then broke the wall of the fence.
The demonstrators then broke windows, walls and looted computers, chairs, tables and valuables. Monusco agents present on the site were evacuated aboard two helicopters.
Similar scenes also occurred at the Monusco logistics base where a student in uniform was hit in the leg by a bullet fired from inside.
Destabilized for 30 years
On July 15 in Goma, the President of the Congolese Senate Modeste Bahati had asked, during a meeting, Monusco to “pack up” after 22 years of a presence which has not been able to impose peace in the eastern part of the DRC, destabilized for almost three decades.
The demonstration was organized at the call of civil society organizations and the ruling party, Union for Democracy and Social Progress. Monusco is the largest UN mission in the world with at least 14,000 blue helmets.