Two Indian peacekeeping personnel in a UN operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were killed on Tuesday during attacks on peacekeepers by local people.

In April a Nepali peacekeeper was killed in the DRC and six Pakistani peacekeepers were killed when a helicopter was shot down.

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar tweeted that the two were from the paramilitary Border Security Force and demanded that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said that at the Butembo base “violent attackers snatched weapons from Congolese police and fired upon our uniformed personnel”, killing three persons with the UN mission.

He said that a peacekeeper had also been killed in the rioting at Butembo in the DRC, but did not disclose that victim’s nationality.

Haq said that mobs threw stones and petrol bombs at UN facilities and broke into bases, looting, vandalising and setting them on fire in Eastern DRC. 

There are 139 police and 1,888 military personnel from India in the DRC mission known by the French initials MONUSCO for UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC. 

MONUSCO started operations in the DRC in 2010 from an earlier operation set up in 1999 to stabilise the country wracked by rebel attacks.

Haq said that the situation in the DRC “is very volatile and reinforcements are being mobilized”. 

“Our quick reaction forces are on high alert and have been advised to exercise maximum restraint, using tear gas to disperse protestors and only firing warning shots when UN personnel or property are under attack”, Haq said.

Tuesday was the second day of protests against the UN in Eastern DRC.

Haq blamed "hostile remarks and threats made by individuals and groups against the UN, particularly on social media” for the attacks by hundreds of assailants on UN bases in Goma as well as other parts of North Kivu province. 

MONUSCO staff residences were targeted in four incidents and staff have been relocated to camps, he added. 

The protests were reportedly called by a section of the youth wing of the ruling, the UDPS.