KINSHASA, April 7 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people died late Thursday following an explosion in a bar in the city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), confirmed the provincial governor Constant Ndima Kongba.
"The military governor of North Kivu has just informed us of an explosion in a bar at Camp Katindo in Goma. The provisional toll reports 8 dead and 3 wounded. The services are already deployed for the first investigations," DRC media minister and government spokesman Patrick Muyaya tweeted.
According to local sources, the first information indicates that it was a grenade of a soldier member of the Congolese army that exploded. Muyaya promised to give more details afterwards, calling on the public to "stay calm".
North Kivu and the neighboring Ituri province have been under the state of siege since May 2021, due to rising attacks by armed groups. Last December, a suicide bombing attack struck the city of Beni, in North Kivu, in the middle of the Christmas celebration, killing eight people. ■