GOMA, Congo (AP) — Two senior military officers in northeastern Congo were arrested Monday for taking part in the crackdown on protests last week that left 43 people dead and another 56 seriously injured, authorities said .
Interior Minister Peter Kazadi said police have arrested commanders Mike Mikombe and Donat Bawili, who respectively headed the Republican Guard unit and the Congolese Armed Forces regiment in Goma, the eastern city where the violence unfolded.
Defense and security forces in the Central African country used deadly force on Wednesday to suppress planned anti-UN protests in the city. A government delegation arrived in Goma on Monday to hold hearings and other procedures “to establish accountability,” the interior minister said.
“We have no interest in hiding anything. The whole truth will be revealed,” said Kazadi. The authorities have called on the families of the people killed in Goma to provide information for the investigation.
On August 23, the mayor of Goma banned a protest organized by a sect called the Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations, popularly known as Wazalendo. Its supporters planned to demonstrate against the regional organization of the East African Community and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo.
The UN mission, known by its French abbreviation MONUSCO, is under increasing pressure to withdraw from Congo after more than 20 years in the conflict-ravaged country.
The advocacy group Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that before the protests could take place, armed forces had fired on Wazalendo protesters in the street, beginning an “apparent massacre” in the city. National authorities said 43 civilians were killed and 56 seriously injured.
The UN Human Rights Office said more than 220 people have been arrested in connection with the planned protests and subsequent crackdown.
“After expressing anger and dismay at the tragic events in Goma, President Felix Tshisekedi called on the judiciary to shed light on the tragedy and determine who was responsible,” said presidential spokesperson Tina Salama on social media platform X, formerly known as as Twitter.
Young protesters in Goma expressed outrage at the killings and barricaded roads on Monday morning. The city remained paralyzed until the afternoon, when police managed to disperse the demonstrators without major incident and reopen the roads.
