At least 10 people were killed Wednesday in Goma, a city in eastern DR Congo, after soldiers attempted to stop a religious group's planned anti-UN protest.

Moleka Maregane, a member of the group that organised the march, said that Congolese soldiers killed six people at a radio station and place of worship.

Hospital officials also said they had admitted 33 wounded people, three of whom three died of their injuries.
According to witnesses, as well as the mayor of Goma, members of the religious group also lynched a policeman in the violence.

The UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUSCO, is one of the largest and costliest in the world, with an annual budget of around $1 billion. It has been present in the country since 1999.

But the UN comes in for sharp criticism in the central African nation, where many people perceive the peacekeepers as failing to prevent militia violence that has ravaged the east for three decades.

The force has a current strength of about 16,000 uniformed personnel, mainly deployed in Congo's mineral-rich east.