This archive report was first published on 27 November 2019.
At least one student was injured and 10 people were arrested on Wednesday in renewed protests in eastern DR Congo, where public anger has boiled over against perceived UN failures to combat a notorious armed group.
Police used teargas to break up a demonstration outside the university in Goma, one of two cities in the province of North Kivu where protests have been ongoing.
Since DR Congo's army launched an offensive against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on October 30, dozens of civilians in and around the town of Beni have been killed.
According to the Congo Research Group, 81 people in the Beni region have been killed since November 5, and over a thousand civilians have been killed by the ADF since October 2014.
Protesters, including law students Fiston Muhindo and Junior Mastaki, accused the UN's peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUSCO, of inaction and called for its withdrawal.
"Our demonstration is patriotic. MONUSCO is standing on the sidelines as the massacres unfold, when its chief mission is to protect civilians," Muhindo said.
MONUSCO, one of the biggest UN peacekeeping operations in the world, has struggled to make headway in the vast country beset by armed groups, poverty, and poor governance.
On Monday, the Congolese armed forces claimed to have taken control of the ADF's strongholds and headquarters in the forests around Beni, but protesters remain skeptical.
