Scores killed in anti-UN protest in DRC's Goma

At least 48 people have been killed in a crackdown on an anti-UN protest in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to local sources and official documentation seen by AFP.

On Thursday, the figure marks a sharp increase on an earlier reported death toll of 10 from the incident, which occurred on Wednesday in the city of Goma after soldiers attempted to stop a religious sect's planned anti-UN protest, in the latest violence in the conflict-torn region.

The Christian-animist group known as the "Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith towards the Nations" had urged followers to enter United Nations bases and demand the departure of peacekeepers.

Local authorities in the eastern Congolese city of Goma banned the protest.

One of costliest UN missions

Leaders of the sect told AFP on Tuesday that they had nonetheless identified the homes of UN officials in the city and were prepared to loot them.

Early on Wednesday, before the protest could take place, Congolese soldiers descended on a radio station and place of worship in Goma, killing six people, according to Moleka Maregane, who is in charge of security for the sect.

A policeman was also lynched in the violence, according to local officials.

Hospital workers said that 33 people were injured, with three later succumbing to their wounds.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's east has been ravaged by militia violence for three decades, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the region is one of the largest and costliest in the world, with an annual budget of about $1 billion.