All UN peacekeepers will leave DR Congo by end of this year
By Story Agencies, January 15, 2024The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has helped in the fight against rebels for more than two decades, will completely withdraw from the country by December.
“After 25 years of presence, MONUSCO will definitively leave the DRC no later than the end of 2024,” Bintou Keita, head of the mission known as MONUSCO said at a media briefing in the Congolese capital Kinshasa on Saturday.
The announcement comes after the Congolese government – which was just re-elected in a disputed vote – called for the UN mission to leave the country, saying it had failed to protect civilians from armed groups.
Numerous armed groups, including the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and M23, are active in restive eastern areas such as North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, where civilians face violence and displacement. The withdrawal will take place in three phases.
In the first phase, about 2,000 UN troops will leave South Kivu by the end of April, taking the currently 13,500-strong MONUSCO force to 11,500, Keita said.
Fourteen UN bases in the province will be taken over by Congolese security forces, she explained. After that, forces in North Kivu and Ituri will also leave.
The Congolese government has also directed an East African regional force, deployed last year to help end the fighting, to leave the country for similar reasons as the UN peacekeeping mission.
More than seven million people have been displaced due to conflicts in DRC, mostly in the three eastern provinces where a myriad of armed groups continue to operate.
Members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) expressed reservations on Thursday over the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) call to accelerate the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces.
Last year, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi called on the UN to speed up the pullout of the Monusco peacekeeping mission that has been in the country for nearly 25 years. He urged the pullout to begin by the end of last year, rather than December 2024 as planned.
The Security Council needs to renew the mandate for Monusco in December, with Kinshasa expressing doubts the force has been effective in protecting civilians from decades of militia violence.
With the security situation still very dangerous in the eastern part of the country, some UNSC members have expressed doubts about the advisability of accelerating the handover of peacekeeping to the Congolese military.
“The US is frankly concerned that DRC and regional security forces are not prepared to meet the security requirements of the Congolese people,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN. UK Deputy Ambassador James Kariuki said London is prepared to consider a reduction in the number of peacekeepers, based on Kinshasa’s request. – Agencies
“However, we must also carefully consider the implications of Monusco’s drawdown on the civilian population,” Kariuki said.
“The consequences of a rushed departure would be severe,” he added.
Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs Christophe Lutundula criticised their “fixed” positions, warning against any temptation by the council to just reconfigure Monusco without a withdrawal.