French, US, Rwandan, Ugandan and Kenyan embassies in DRC Congo attacked by protesters
Armed protesters set fire to US, French, Rwandan, Ugandan and Kenyan embassies in DRC Congo
Armed protesters set fire to US, French, Rwandan, Ugandan and Kenyan embassies in DRC Congo.
The French, US, Rwandan, Ugandan and Kenyan embassies in Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa were attacked by protesters, a European diplomatic source said.
Armed protesters have been seen on the roof of the US embassy which has been attacked and set alight in Kinshasa, where looting has also been reported.
The French embassy is also on fire.
Protesters in the capital attacked a U.N. compound and embassies including those of Rwanda, France and the United States, expressing anger at what they said was foreign interference.
The demonstrators targeted embassies of countries they accuse of complicity in Rwanda’s support of M23 rebels, who have seized the eastern provincial capital, Goma.
A European diplomat told Reuters that the embassies of France, the United States, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya were targeted by the protesters.
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on a post on X that the French embassy in Kinshasa was attacked and briefly caught fire, although the blaze had been brought under control.
“All of this is because of Rwanda. What Rwanda is doing is in complicity with France, Belgium, the United States and others. The people of Congo are tired. How many times should we die?” a protester told Reuters.
M23 fighters entered Goma on Monday in the worst escalation since 2012 of a three-decade conflict rooted in the long fallout from the Rwandan genocide and control of Congo’s abundant mineral resources.
The Congolese government and the head of U.N. peacekeeping have said Rwandan troops were present in Goma, backing up their M23 allies.
Rwanda has said it was adopting a defensive posture because of the threat posed to it by Congolese militias.
Dozens of Democratic Republic of Congo troops had surrendered, but some soldiers and pro-government militiamen were holding out, residents and U.N. sources said.
People in several neighbourhoods reported small arms fire and some loud explosions on Tuesday morning.
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“I have heard the crackle of gunfire from midnight until now … it is coming from near the airport,” an elderly woman in Goma’s northern Majengo neighbourhood, close to the airport, told Reuters by phone.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA), told a briefing in Geneva colleagues had reported “heavy small arms fire and mortar fire across the city and the presence of many dead bodies in the streets.”
“We have reports of rapes committed by fighters, looting of property … and humanitarian health facilities being hit,” he added.
Willy Ngumbi, a bishop in Goma, said explosives had hit a house where priests were staying and the maternity ward of a Catholic hospital on Monday.
“The town is a powderkeg,” he said by phone. “The youth are armed and the fighting is now taking place in the town.”
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