One person was killed and 11 others wounded after a soldier accidently sent a rocket-propelled grenade into a stadium in Goma, in conflict-torn eastern DR Congo, the military said Thursday.
A Congolese soldier “inadvertently” triggered his RPG in the afternoon, which landed in Goma’s Unity stadium, said army spokesman Guillaume Ndjike,
Twelve people were hit in the blast, he added in a statement, with one later succumbing to their wounds.
Ndjike explained that the soldier had fired the RPG while riding in a vehicle that hit a bump in the road near the stadium.
Prince Mumbere, a Goma resident who was near the stadium at the time of the incident, said he saw wounded football players streaming out of the venue.
Unverified photos circulating on social media showed injured footballers and a young man drenched in blood being evacuated from the stadium on foot or motorbikes.
Goma’s Unity Stadium lies about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the frontlines separating Congolese troops from M23 rebels, who have seized swathes of North Kivu province since launching a campaign in late 2021.
Dozens of armed groups are active in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo a legacy of regional wars that raged in the 1990s and 2000s.
