Two people were killed and four wounded in three separate shootings overnight in the Congolese town of Goma, highlighting rising insecurity in the east of the vast country, U.N. officials said on Wednesday. Tension has been increasing in the region since dissident soldiers seized the town of Bukavu in June and then withdrew to a base just south of Goma, a lakeside rebel stronghold during the five-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government has deployed thousands of soldiers in the area to try to restore its authority, but residents say shootings and armed robberies are increasingly common. U.N. spokeswoman Jacqueline Chenard said one person was shot and killed on Tuesday evening and three wounded when men in uniform opened fire on civilians they were trying to rob. In other incidents a student was severely wounded when he tried to help a friend who was being attacked and another person was shot and killed early on Wednesday, Chenard said. Residents said they thought the attackers were gunmen loyal to Laurent Nkunda, a dissident commander who seized Bukavu in June. The U.N. spokeswoman could not confirm their identity. --More 2123 Local Time 1823 GMT