Kampala, Jan 29 (IANS) Uganda on Wednesday strongly condemned an attack on the country’s embassy in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), by rioters amid mass demonstrations.
John Mulimba, Uganda’s Minister of State for foreign affairs in charge of regional cooperation, told the parliament that rioters had looted and burned embassy property, forcing the staff into hiding.
“The incident is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and we condemn it in the strongest terms,” Mulimba told lawmakers during a plenary.
He added that on Tuesday evening, the DRC government had assured Uganda that appropriate security measures had been taken and the situation in Kinshasa was under control.
He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is assessing practical means to provide consular or other emergency services to Ugandan nationals in the DRC, Xinhua news agency reported.
Violent protests targeting foreign embassies against the situation in Goma, the capital of the DRC’s eastern province of North Kivu, and the perceived “inaction” of the international community erupted in Kinshasa on Tuesday.
Protesters were seen on the city’s main arteries, disrupting traffic, blocking commercial activities, burning tires, and chanting slogans in front of the embassies of the United States and several other countries and the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping mission.
–IANS
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