11 blue helmets wounded in Congo chaos

The villagers were apparently irate at the lack of protection against attacks by armed militias, as fierce fighting continued on Monday between rebels and government forces, AFP reported.

The UN Security Council condemned the assault and expressed concern at the deterioration of law and order in the region.

Villagers walked on the UN base in the Bunyiakiri district of South Kivu province after an overnight attack by rebels that left six people dead, said Monodje Mounoubai, a UN spokesman in Kinshasa. The attack was reportedly carried out by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia, Mounoubai said.

The people accused the UN peacekeepers of doing “nothing to defend” the village.

Mounoubai said shots were fired at UN peacekeepers from the demonstrating crowd of villagers. Eleven Pakistanis were injured, including two who are in critical condition, the UN spokesman said.

“Our troops did not return fire because if they had fired there would have been carnage,” Mounoubai added.

Meanwhile, rebels from another militia group, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), on Monday claimed to have killed 26 government troops in intense fighting near the Rwandan border on Sunday.

“There was a major firefight that lasted at least 30 minutes in the Mbuzi district. We killed 26 soldiers while suffering just one wounded” in the battle, Lieutenant Colonel Vianney Kazarana, a CNDP spokesman said.

More than 10,000 people have fled to Rwanda and Uganda over the past few days.

Led by rebel leader General Jean Bosco Ntaganda, hundreds of former members of the CNDP rebelled against Kinshasa last month in protest over mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC).

The CNDP was a rebel militia group that split from the FARDC. In 2009, a peace treaty was signed by the rebels and the Congolese government, which integrated the CNDP into the FARDC.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.5 million people dead.

GJH/MF/HGL

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