Eastern DRCongo is again on the brink of a major conflict, a senior UN official warned as he urged the UN Security Council to urgently approve plans for a peace enforcement unit to combat armed rebel groups.
Roger Meece, head of the UN mission in Congo known as MONUSCO, told the Security Council that the creation of a peace enforcement unit within the peacekeeping force – which would be a new move for the UN – was an “urgently needed and important response to the existing situation on the ground”.
Peace enforcement missions allow the use of lethal force in serious combat situations, while peacekeeping operations are intended to support and monitor an already existing ceasefire, diplomats and UN officials say.
The Congolese government has reached an uneasy truce in eastern Congo with M23 rebels and Uganda is now hosting peace talks, but Meece warned of “increased fears and rumours in the area of an imminent resumption of large-scale military actions”.
wirestory
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