According to local reports, at least 48 people were killed in a crackdown on an anti-UN protest in eastern DR Congo.
On Wednesday, Congolese soldiers attacked a religious group preparing a protest against UN peacekeepers in Goma.
Initially, eight persons were reported dead, including a police officer whom sect members lynched. However, according to an internal army document seen by AFP and confirmed by security sources, 48 people were murdered in the crackdown, in addition to the police officer killed, and 75 people were injured.
According to the document, soldiers recovered various bladed weapons and arrested 168 people, including the sect's leader.
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On Thursday, the Congolese pro-democracy activist group LUCHA also said that "close to 50" demonstrators had been slain.
On Thursday, two unverified video clips circulating on social media purported to show Congolese soldiers dumping lifeless bodies, some drenched in blood, into the back of a military vehicle.
For three decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo's east has been destroyed by militia violence, a residue of regional battles that erupted in the 1990s and 2000s.
With an annual budget of around $1 billion (915,000,000 euros), the UN peacekeeping mission in the region is one of the largest and most expensive in the world.
However, the UN faces harsh criticism in the central African country, where many believe peacekeepers fail to avert conflict.
