DR Congo : UN Security Council Ends Assessment Visit

A United Nations Security Council Delegation has rounded off a four-day working visit in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The objective of the visit that ended yesterday, March 12, 2023 was to assess the security and humanitarian situation in the DRC and the implementation of MONUSCO’s mandate, in accordance with Resolution 2666 (2022) adopted by the Security Council. During the delegation’s stay in the capital Kinshasa, they met with political representatives of civil society, the diplomatic community, MONUSCO officials, and the UN system in the DRC. A member of the delegation, French Ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Rivière, while talking to the press, reaffirmed the support of the international community to the DRC, “The main message we have come to convey is that the United Nations, the international community, stands by the Democratic Republic of Congo in its ordeal because what is happening in the east of the country is not acceptable, the action of the groups is very reprehensible, it must be fought”, he reiterated.
Despite several rounds of negotiations, the fragile cease-fire under the auspices of the East African Community (EAC) and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), known as the Nairobi and Luanda processes, heavy fighting continues in the North Kivu Province with the M23 rebels threatening to cut off all road links to Goma, a city of more than one million inhabitants situated on the border with Rwanda. The Congolese government has accused Rwanda of backing the M23 rebels. UN experts, the United States and several other western states, have also confirmed that Rwanda supports the group. But Kigali has ...