Kinshasa, DRC
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is calling for broadening and boosting of the mandate of the UN Mission for Stabilization of Congo (MONUSCO), amid rebel threat in the troubled eastern province of North Kivu.
The call was made by Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende Omalanga on Monday at a press conference in the capital Kinshasa.Mende noted that MONUSCO has been present in the Central African country for years as a mission to protect the civilian population, control the border with Rwanda and neutralize the rebel forces like the M23 and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
“The government’s request does not necessarily mean increase of MONUSCO’s military size, but we are simply calling for some adjustments not only in its mandate, but also in its rules of engagement and the composition of its troops,” he said.
The request comes just a few days before the summit of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region, which is scheduled to take place on Sept. 7-8 in Uganda.
The regional leaders will meet to finalize the proposal on deployment of an international neutral force along the border between DR Congo and Rwanda, with a view of neutralizing armed groups that have been destabilizing eastern DR Congo.
The summit will be the second hosted by Uganda after the first was held in the Ugandan capital Kampala. The countries failed to reach an agreement on a neutral force with some countries insisting on the composition of regional troops and Kinshasa on broadening the MONUSCO mission. (Xinhua)
