Anti-UN protests: DR Congo tightens security in the east
UNITED NATIONS CHIEF STRONGLY CONDEMNED THE BUTEMBO ATTACK AND VIOLENCE TARGETING MULTIPLE UN BASES ACROSS NORTH KIVU
Soldiers and armed police were deployed in several towns in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday after 15 people, including three United Nations peacekeepers, were killed in anti-UN protests, AFP reporters said.
Crowds stormed a UN peacekeeping base and a supply centre in the city of Goma in North Kivu province on Monday, looting valuables and chanting hostile slogans. Protests quickly spread and on Tuesday, three UN peacekeepers were killed in an attack on their base in the town of Butembo.
Twelve protesters have died, in addition to the peacekeepers, according to a government toll.
The UN mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, is one of the world’s biggest peacekeeping operations. But it has come under regular criticism in Congo’s troubled east, where many accuse it of failing to do enough to end decades- old attacks by armed groups.
On Wednesday, AFP correspondents saw tighter security in the towns of Beni and Butembo, as well as in Goma, the provincial capital.
Armed police and soldiers were patrolling Beni in jeeps and a highway leading out of the town towards several MONUSCO bases was heavily guarded.
Relative calm had also returned to Goma, where shops were beginning to open again as security forces deployed across the city. In the town of Sake about 30 kilometres from Goma, Congolese police fired tear gas to disperse protesters near a UN base, which was ringed with soldiers and police officers.
“We will protest until they leave,” said Jackson Kibuya, a protester in Sake, holding up a banner reading “Bye Bye MONUSCO”.
Meanwhile, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the Butembo attack and violence targeting multiple UN bases across North Kivu since Monday, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
Haq said that on Tuesday “hundreds of assailants” attacked bases of the UN force in Goma and other parts of North Kivu, “fuelled by hostile remarks and threats made by individuals and groups against the UN, particularly on social media’.”
The secretary-general “regrets the loss of life of demonstrators” and affirms the UN peacekeeping mission’s commitment to work with Congolese authorities to investigate these incidents, Haq said.
Miners in Angola have unearthed a rare pure pink diamond that is believed to be the largest found in 300 years, the Australian site operator announced on Wednesday.
A 170 carat pink diamond - dubbed The Lulo Rose - was discovered at Lulo mine in the country’s diamond-rich northeast and is among the largest pink diamonds ever found, the Lucapa Diamond Company said in a statement to investors.
The “historic” find of the Type IIa diamond, one of the rarest and purest forms of natural stones, was welcomed by the Angolan government, which is also a partner in the mine.
“This record and spectacular pink diamond recovered from Lulo continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage,” Angola’s mineral resources minister Diamantino Azevedo said. The diamond will be sold at international tender, likely at a dazzling price. Although The Lulo Rose would have to be cut and polished to realise its true value, in a process that can see a stone lose 50% of its weight, similar pink diamonds have sold for record-breaking prices.
The 59.6 carat Pink Star was sold at a Hong Kong auction in 2017 for $71.2 million. It remains the most expensive diamond ever sold.