DR Congo authorities on Monday stepped up safety at embassies and UN buildings after they had been focused by protesters who accused the West of supporting M23 rebels within the conflict-wracked east.
Embassies and United Nations automobiles had been focused by protesters on Saturday.
The pinnacle of the UN's MONUSCO peacekeeping mission, Bintou Keita, mentioned on X, previously Twitter, that a number of of his automobiles had been set on hearth.
Final week, protests broke out within the capital Kinshasa and the southeastern metropolis of Lubumbashi.
On Friday, dozens of younger individuals demonstrated exterior the embassies of France and Nice Britain, and earlier this week in entrance of the American embassy.
“The federal government has determined to strengthen safety preparations in a number of embassies and in MONUSCO buildings,” it mentioned in a press release late on Sunday after an emergency assembly.
It added that an investigation had been opened and that the federal government “strongly condemns these completely unjustified acts of violence.”
AFP journalists noticed early on Monday that police had been stepped up in a number of areas within the capital.
Dozens of younger individuals additionally gathered for brand new marches and had burned tires on the sidewalks.
As a precaution, international colleges had been closed on Monday morning, as had been some retailers in central Kinshasa.
“It’s they who’re killing within the DRC. Westerners generally should depart our territory,” a protester named Gedeon, who was close to the US embassy, informed AFP.
An indication he carried learn in English and French: “Paul Kagame (Rwandan president) pal of the Westerners who’re killing in japanese DRC.”
Tires had been additionally burned close to MONUSCO headquarters by protesters who had been dispersed by safety forces.
The M23 has taken over giant elements of North Kivu since rising from dormancy in late 2021, in an space wracked by a long time of violence following regional wars within the Nineteen Nineties.
The DRC, the United Nations and Western international locations say Rwanda is backing the rebels, a declare Kigali denies.
