{The UN Security Council on Friday urged a Rwandan rebel group active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to voluntarily disarm and demobilize within a six-month timeframe starting from July, Xihnua has reported}
The council said in a statement that the swift neutralization of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is a top priority in bringing stability to the DRC and the Great Lakes region as well as protecting the civilians.
The FDLR rebels, primarily Rwandan Hutu militias who fled to Congo after carrying out the Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, announced in May that they would disarm. The Congolese government set the June 9 deadline for the group to lay down weapons, but saw little progress with only a few hundred fighters complying. African countries agreed in early July to extend for another six months the deadline for the FDLR to disarm.
With only three months left, the 15-member UN body noted “with deep concern” that no further voluntary surrenders of the rebel members have taken place. There are still some 1,500 FDLR combatants remaining active and not conforming to the DRC’s six- month voluntary disarmament plan starting in July, the UN said in August.
The Security Council called on the DRC government, in coordination with MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping forces in DRC, “to undertake military action against those leaders and members of the FDLR who do not engage in the demobilization process or who continue to carry out human rights abuses.”
The United Nations has a 22,000-strong peacekeeping force in the DRC. In 2013, the council authorized the deployment of an intervention brigade within MONUSCO to carry out targeted offensive operations, with or without the Congolese national army, against armed groups that threaten peace in eastern DRC.
The council also stressed the need to arrest and bring to justice those responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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