UN Security Council team arrives in DR Congo as rebel forces advance

Issued on: 10/03/2023 – 07:30

The Tutsi-led group has seized swathes of territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province since taking up arms again in late 2021.

M23 fighters have also advanced in recent days, threatening to cut off all road links to Goma, a city of more than one million people on the Rwandan border.

The delegation was due to meet President Felix Tshisekedi before travelling to Goma on Saturday.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, said the objective of the council’s visit was to assess the security and humanitarian situation in North Kivu.

“We are here to support the action of MONUSCO, to remind that it is part of the solution to find peace,” said Gabon’s UN ambassador Michel Xavier Biang on his arrival in Kinshasa.

The peacekeeping force is one of the largest and most expensive UN missions in the world, with more than 16,000 uniformed personnel.

Residents accuse it of failing to deal with the dozens of armed groups operating in eastern DRC, including M23 rebels.

Several regional initiatives intended to defuse the conflict have failed.

An Angola-mediated ceasefire that had been due to take effect on Tuesday collapsed the same day. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had urged the rebels to comply with the truce.

Last weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron also threatened sanctions against parties that did not respect an agreed ceasefire.

The DRC government accuses Rwanda of backing M23. UN experts, the United States and several other western states, have also concluded that Rwanda supports the group, although Kigali has denied that.

Fighting between the DRC army and M23 has displaced about 800,000 people.

(AFP)