Four dead in anti-UN protests in eastern DR Congo

At least four protesters were killed in eastern DR Congo, the military said, after angry clashes erupted over the perceived failure of UN peacekeepers to stop deadly militia attacks.

Crowds defied warning shots fired by Congolese forces and stormed a UN camp, which had apparently been evacuated, after rioting broke out in the eastern town of Beni on Monday.

The violence was prompted by the killing overnight of eight people in Beni, the latest attack blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia, which has plagued the area for years despite a large UN peacekeeping presence.

Dozens of protesters broke into the UN camp and set fire to parts of it after a crowd of several hundred had also set fire to the Beni town hall, partly damaging it.

"There were four deaths during the day," military prosecutor Kumbu Ngoma told AFP. "Ten civilians were wounded and three Congolese military were also hurt." Investigators were still determining the origin of the gunfire, the prosecutor said.

The UN mission said peacekeepers fired warning shots in the air, but none were aimed at the protesters. An AFP correspondent at the scene said Congolese army and police also fired shots. Earlier, the presidential office had announced the DR Congo and UN peacekeepers will launch "joint operations" to beef up security in an eastern town where massacres by the shadowy group have incensed the population.

North Kivu provincial authorities decreed an indefinite dusk-to-dawn curfew in Beni and the surrounding area after the rioting.

Army spokesman Colonel Mak Hazukai confirmed that the town had been attacked by armed men overnight, telling AFP that "the enemy entered the Boikene quarter and killed eight civilians".

The killing has been blamed on the ADF militia, a group that has its historical roots among Ugandan Islamists opposed to Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni.

The planned joint operations aim at "ensuring peace and security for the civilian population," the presidency said after an emergency meeting with the UN force, known as MONUSCO.

The armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo will also set up an "advance headquarters" in Beni, it said in a statement.

There were no details as to when the operation would begin.

The UN mission issued its own statement, saying it would "strengthen cooperation with its partners and work closely with the authorities to jointly find solutions for the people of Beni." The army launched an offensive in the Beni area on October 30, vowing to "definitively wipe out" armed groups in the lawless east.

But in response, the ADF has carried out a string of massacres, apparently to discourage people from collaborating with the military. Seventy-seven civilians have been killed in the Beni region since November 5, according to a not-for-profit organisation, the Congo Research Group (CRG).