Beni
Two injured in church bomb blast in eastern DR Congo
A makeshift bomb exploded inside a Catholic church in the city of Beni in the DR Congo’s conflict-plagued east on Sunday, injuring two just an hour before a children’s Confirmation ceremony was due to be held. The head of police in Beni’s town hall Narcisse Muteba Kashale told AFP that the explosion occurred at 06:00 and that experts from the UN’s mission to DR Congo had told “us it is a home-made bomb, a bomb that was set up for an ambush”. Beni’s vicar general Laurent Sondirya said two people were injured in the blast, which went off before crowds would have gathered to attend the Confirmation ceremony. “They were targeting a large crowd because the ceremony would bring together children, their parents and the faithful,” he told AFP, adding that “mass would not be postponed”. Traces of b...
Ten killed in inter-communal violence amid protests in eastern Congo
Ten people have been killed and 34 injured in fighting between rival ethnic communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern city of Goma, a spokesman for the provincial government said on Tuesday. The clashes broke out when protests against the U.N.’s MONUSCO peacekeeping mission, which some blame for failing to end to worsening insecurity and militia attacks, descended into violence between the two communities. Attacks by armed militias and inter-communal violence in Congo’s restive eastern region have killed over 300 people since the start of the year as government troops and U.N. peacekeepers struggle to bring stability in the mineral-rich region. The governor of North Kivu province, Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, banned all public protests from Monday and called for calm. “From now o...
DR Congo police shoot dead activist during rally
Agence France-Presse An activist was shot and killed by police on Thursday during a rally in a strife-torn region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a campaign group has said. Police in the city of Beni, in a region plagued by attacks from bandits and militias, told AFP that two officers had been arrested over the incident. Roughly 20 people had gathered in a stadium in Beni for a protest organised by grassroots group Lucha against killings and general insecurity in the area. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a mainly Muslim rebel group, is accused of killing more than 1,000 civilians in the Beni region since October 2014. Residents have protested regularly against the failure of officials and UN forces to protect them. Roughly a dozen people were detained at Thursday’s rally, acco...
