Global Courant
The first phase of the withdrawal will see around 2,000 UN troops leave the restive eastern areas by the end of April.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been helping the fight against the rebels for more than two decades, will withdraw completely from the country in December.
“After 25 years of presence, MONUSCO will permanently leave the DRC by the end of 2024,” Bintou Keita, head of the mission known as MONUSCO, said Saturday at a media conference in the Congolese capital Kinshasa.
The announcement comes after the Congolese government – which was just re-elected in a controversial vote – called on the UN mission to leave the country after failing to protect civilians from armed groups.
Numerous armed groups, including the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and M23, operate 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 U.N. troops will leave South Kivu by the end of April, bringing 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.
Afterwards, the armed forces in North Kivu and Ituri will also leave.
Not the ‘end of the battle’
Congolese Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula confirmed at a press conference in Kinshasa that the remaining UN troops are expected to leave the country by December 31.
“The withdrawal of MONUSCO does not necessarily mean the end of the struggle we are waging to protect our country’s territorial interests; we have to keep fighting,” Lutundula said.
MONUSCO took over from an earlier UN operation in 2010 to help quell insecurity in the east of the Central African country, where armed groups are fighting over territory and resources. But in recent years his presence has become increasingly unpopular.
In December, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to phase out peacekeeping operations.
Keita said on Saturday that the end of the mission would not be “the end of the United Nations” in the country.
The Congolese government has also ordered an East African regional force, deployed last year to help end the fighting, to leave the country for similar reasons to the UN peacekeeping mission.
More than seven million people have been displaced by conflict in the DRC, especially in the three eastern provinces where numerous armed groups remain active.
