The UN is continuing its peace mission in DR Congo.

A resolution drafted to this effect by France was adopted on Friday, December 18, by 14 members of the Security Council out of 15, with Russia abstaining.

It plans to "extend MONUSCO's mandate in DR Congo until December 20, 2021," with a maximum authorized strength of around 16,300 soldiers and police.  

The text asks the UN secretariat "to consider further reducing the level of military deployment and MONUSCO's area of ​​operations depending on the positive development of the situation on the ground, particularly in regions where threat posed by armed groups is no longer significant ". 

In this regard, the Security Council "approves" the joint UN-DRC plan presented in October on a "gradual withdrawal from MONUSCO and the main parameters of the transition" aimed at entrusting the responsibilities assured by the peacekeepers to the Congolese forces, specifies the resolution.

>> To see: Focus: DR Congo: in North Kivu, the authorities powerless in the face of violence

It therefore endorses the "planned withdrawals from Kasai (center) in 2021 and gradually from Tanganyika (south-east) in 2022, as well as the gradual consolidation of Monusco's footprint in the three provinces where the active conflict persists", indicates the text.

These three provinces are North and South Kivu (east of the country) and Ituri (north-east).

#photodujour: Roe, Ituri, #RDC: "I have seen populations who suffer from violence and who need help from #MONUSCO, not alone, but with the other partners to whom I pay tribute" , 🗨️Jean-Pierre Lacroix @UNPeacekeeping, visiting Roe #Ituri on 12/17.

pic.twitter.com/wnUPxhZPcN

- MONUSCO (@MONUSCO) December 17, 2020

A transition period of at least three years

The Security Council also asks the Secretary General of the UN to present no later than September 2021 a "transition plan (...) defining the practical modalities" of a transfer of responsibilities, with "realistic benchmarks" and "indicative deadlines" for a "gradual and staggered withdrawal from MONUSCO".

In its resolution, the Security Council does not define any deadline for the completion of a withdrawal, limiting itself to recalling that a transition period cannot be accomplished in less than three years.

The UN Mission has been present in DR Congo for 20 years and its annual budget is around one billion dollars.

According to the United Nations, the country has 25.6 million Congolese who still need humanitarian assistance.

With AFP

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