Before the Security Council, the head of MONUSCO sounds the alarm on the situation in eastern DRC
The head of MONUSCO, Bintou Keita, sounded several alarm bells at the UN on Wednesday March 27 on the security and humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She briefed the Security Council for the first time since December's presidential election and warned of "
significant advances
" by M23 rebels in the east of the country.
Congolese displaced by the war found refuge in a school in South Kivu, eastern DRC, on March 9, 2024. © ALEXIS HUGUET / AFP
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If she did not forget to welcome the resumption of the
Luanda process
and
Angola's mediation
between the DRC and Rwanda, Bintou Keita, head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in this country ( Monusco), was very clear before the Security Council:
the M23
has never advanced so far in the east of the country, reports our UN correspondent,
Carrie Nooten
. And the atrocities of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) are having disastrous consequences on civilians between North Kivu and Ituri: nearly 200 people have been killed there since the start of 2024.
As for the Ituri region itself, insecurity remains dramatic. As a result, there are 800,000 more internally displaced people in three months. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in total, more than 7.1 million people are displaced.
Furthermore, as Bintou Keita points out and reports a
UN press release
, “
for the month of January 2024 alone, 10,400
cases of gender-based violence were reported throughout the country, a much greater increase than in previous years. previous ones
.
One in four Congolese faces hunger
To stem this deterioration, President
Félix Tshisekedi
announced a reform of the security and defense apparatus, and MONUSCO says it is ready to support the idea if it receives a broad consensus. The head of MONUSCO has in fact specified that military engagement “
must go hand in hand with continued investment by the Congolese authorities in peace processes at the regional, national and local levels
”.
But Bintou Keita still wanted to raise a cry of alarm, because the
humanitarian situation is deteriorating
and now, one in four Congolese is faced with hunger and malnutrition, 23.4 million people are affected by insecurity food, making the DRC the most affected in the world by this problem, according to the United Nations.
However, the UN is struggling to convince donors to finance the humanitarian plan for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The goal for 2024 was to raise $2.5 billion. To date, only 14% of this sum has been raised.
Read also Withdrawal of MONUSCO from the DRC: “The mission has clearly failed to fulfill its mandate”
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