ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: July 15 (Xinhua) — The African Union (AU) has offered its preference for an international force of peacekeepers to be deployed to the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) where an armed rebel group is causing mass civilian casualties.
The group calling itself March 23 (M23), consisting of a breakaway faction of soldiers from DR Congo’ s national army, has seized seven towns in North Kivu. It has also intensified its attacks on schools, hospitals, homes among other civilian targets.
AU’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) had a meeting in Addis Ababa on Saturday, a day after a ministerial meeting of countries drawn from the 11 countries in the Great Lakes region.
The meeting called for an international peacekeeping force for DR Congo. At the ministerial meeting, the African leaders said a “neutral international force” should be deployed there to eliminate the rebels.
“We welcome the emergency conference of the ministers of the Great Lakes region. We call for the establishment of a neutral force and report back on measures taken to that effect,” the leaders said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said in its weekly report Saturday that towns such as Bunagana, Kinyoni, Karambi, Ntamugenga, Rubare, Rwanguba and Rutshuru-centre were seized by the M23 group.
The AU would immediately start work on the model of deploying the neutral force into the North Kivu region. PSC Chairman Allassane Ouattara said it was possible some of the African countries could be asked to send troops into the region to help quell the attacks and restore state authority there.
The fighting in DR Congo’s North Kivu worsened on July 6 when the forces pushed through villages and towns in the volatile region, forcing people to flee to Uganda. The AU said while the neutral force should work towards restoring state power in North Kivu, the two neighbouring countries should activate their joint verification mission.
Fighting in Bunagana on July 6 pushed more than 5,000 people to flee across the border into Uganda, UNOCHA said in a report. Aid organizations are working to determine the number of people newly displaced, relocated or having returned following last week’ s fighting.
AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramtane Lamamra said a final decision on whether the international peacekeeping force should be deployed to the region would be made at the end of the current AU Summit which opened Sunday.
“The PSC is waiting for the international Summit of the AU to make its contributions. We will then conjugate our efforts,” Ouattara said when asked for details of the deployment of the neutral force.
“There is expectation the (deployment) would be done as soon as the recommendation is endorsed,” Ouattara said.
He said the PSC would consult the AU, the UN and the countries of the Great Lakes region to deploy forces drawn from their armies using their own resources in the meantime. (Xinhua)
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