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The United States government says it wants to cut by a quarter the troop cap for the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission despite warnings by France and others against drastic changes to MONUSCO.
The US wants the troop cap to be 15,000.
Currently, there are only 16,893 UN soldiers on the ground after the previous UN chief Ban Ki-moon made reductions in 2015 and 2016.
The move comes as the mandate for what is the UN’s largest and most expensive operation draws to an end on Friday.
Negotiations into the extension of MONUSCO’s mandate are taking place.
There are warnings that violence is spreading across DR Congo ahead of planned elections.
