Hundreds of demonstrators attacked several foreign embassies and a United Nations building in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa on Tuesday as a rebellious offensive supported by neighboring Rwanda in the east of the country has threatened to transform in regional crisis.
The anger against the foreign allies of the Congo increased in the country this week with regard to their inability to arrest an assault against the eastern key of Goma on Monday by the March 23, or M23 movement, a Congolese militia that nations United and the United Nations and the United Nations the United States say that Rwanda is supported and directed.
Tuesday, demonstrators burned tires and thrown stones in front of the main compound of the United States Embassy, according to local reports, and crossed the site of a new Embassy building which is under constructionAccording to an American official in Kinshasa who spoke under the guise of anonymity to preserve the security of the staff. The site was then secured and no one was injured, said the manager.
Protesters attacked the French Embassy in the city, causing a fire, According to Jean-Nobar BarrotFrench Minister of Foreign Affairs, who denounced violence as “unacceptable”, although he declared that the fire had been mastered.
The videos distributed by the Reuters news agency have shown that demonstrators enter the French Embassy and leave the building with looted furniture. “Macron kills in the Congo,” read a message left on a wall of the embassy, referring to President Emmanuel Macron in France. “You have been training us for a long time.”
The demonstrators also looted and set fire to the Uganda Embassy, according to the video verified by the New York Times. And they attacked the Belgian Embassy and the United Nations Humanitarian Agency office in the Congo, according to a United Nations official, who described the situation as “total chaos”.
A small fire was also placed in front of the Rwandan embassy.
The M23 rebels are fighting against the Congolese armed forces and the armed groups allied for territorial control in the oriental regions rich in minerals in the Congo. Their last offensive has moved more than 500,000 people since the start of the year, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
While angry demonstrations broke out in Kinshasa, shots sounded to Goma 1,000 miles in the east, an area which was once a refuge for people fleeing the advance and violence of M23 other groups armed. Many are now fleeing in the middle of the M23 rebels to completely capture the city.
Rwanda denies supporting M23. Instead, he accused the Congo of not having maintained peace in his eastern regions and threatening the security of Rwanda by raising the troops near their border.
During a call on Monday with the president of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the M23 assault on Goma and affirmed the respect of the United States for the sovereignty of the Congo, according to Tammy Bruce, -Stalle of the State Department.
The United Nations Security Council was to organize an emergency meeting on the conflict on Tuesday. After a previous emergency meeting on Sunday on the conflict, the members of the council did not mention Rwanda by their name in their declaration condemning the insurrection.
