{{The UN secretary General Ban ki-Moon said Thursday that the United Nations is ready to pacify the great lakes region by force if need be.}}
He noted while in Goma, DRC, “We have the best chance in many years to bring peace, stability and development to this country and this region.”
Mr. Ban said in the next period of one or two months, the UN will deploy an Intervention Brigade with a mandate of neutralising armed groups in Eastern DRC.
He said the intervention brigade will support the existing 17,000-strong U.N. mission.
“This time, we’re going beyond the traditional way of peacekeeping missions. (The brigade) has been mandated with a clear and robust mandate to enforce peace when it is necessary,” he said.
Soldiers from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi, have already begun to arrive in Congo as part of the 3,000 troops that will form the intervention brigade.
The “unprecedented” joint visit to Africa’s Great Lakes Region is in support of the UN-brokered peace agreement, which was signed in February by 11 African leaders and aims to end the cycles of conflict and crisis in the eastern DRC and to build peace in wider region.
“We believe it offers the best hope for peace in a generation,” Mr. Ban said. “But that agreement must translate into concrete actions. A peace deal must deliver a peace dividend for people.
L-R..{UN secretary General Ban ki-Moon, President Joseph Kabila and World Bank President Dr. Yong Kim }
Leave a Reply