Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the UN Mission for Stabilization of Congo (MONUSCO) have began talks over the renewal of their partnership.
This comes after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Thursday to renew for 12 months the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC, despite a request from the Kinshasa government to cut the force in half.
Head of the MONUSCO forces,Martin Kobler is reported as saying that there may be a lot of challenges in the relationship between MONUSCO forces and the government of DRC, but there’s need for the two to renew their relationship.
The relationship between DRC and MONUSCO is tense. Kinshasa has asked the UN Security Council to withdraw MONUSCO troops engaged in peacekeeping in eastern DR Congo, whereas the UN wants a gradual withdrawal.
Already, the DR Congo government has rejected MONUSCO’s aid in tracking down the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda rebels in the east of the country.
On the other hand, MONUSCO has rejected the presence within DR Congo army of two generals suspected of committing human rights violations.
A month-long Congolese army (FARDC) campaign against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels has achieved little and revived doubts about the will and capacity of Congo to defeat a group at the heart of two decades of conflict in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
In a unanimously adopted resolution on Thursday, the 15-member Security Council extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force for one year and said “the swift neutralization of the FDLR is a top priority in bringing stability to and protecting civilians of the DRC.”
The Congolese government had wanted the U.N. force of some 22,000 troops and police to be more than halved, but a strategic review by the world body dismissed that as impractical and instead recommended a decrease of nearly 10 percent.
The Security Council passed a resolution on Thursday to renew for 12 months the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC, despite a request from the Kinshasa government to cut the force in half.
The Security Council resolution endorsed the suggested cut of 2,000 troops but refused to permanently reflect the change in the mandated strength of the peacekeeping force.
The council expressed “its intention to make this troop reduction permanent, through a revised troop ceiling … once significant progress has been achieved regarding the priorities of MONUSCO’s mandate, including the fight against the FDLR.”
