The killing of dozens of protesters in the city of Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, puts the country in a book of human rights violations.
Development Diaries reports that Congolese soldiers on 30 August stopped a religious sect from holding a demonstration against United Nations peacekeepers in Goma.
According to an assessment by the UN rights office, at least 43 people were killed, including a policeman, and 56 injured.
It is understood that the Congolese authorities had banned the demonstration planned by the religious sect – ‘Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations’.
The protest was aimed at calling on the UN peacekeeping mission and the East African regional force to leave the country.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), in its reaction to the clampdown, said it authenticated two videos showing Congolese soldiers from an elite unit throwing bodies onto the back of a truck.
‘There are credible reports that most of the bodies were being kept in a morgue at a military hospital, to which the deceased’s family members are not allowed access’, HRW said.
The attack on protesters is a case of human rights violation in DRC, which ranked as ‘not free’ in Freedom House’s 2023 Freedom in the World report.
Development Diaries demands an independent investigation into the killing and the perpetrators brought to justice.
Photo source: Michel Lunanga/AFP/Getty Images