DR Congo: UN peacekeepers launch phased withdrawal from war-torn east

The United Nations on Wednesday (28 February) kicked off a phased withdrawal of its MONUSCO peacekeeping forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in line with the country’s demand by handing over a first UN base to national police.

The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) said in a statement it handed over its first base at Kamanyola, on the border with Burundi and Rwanda, during an official ceremony to the national police. The second largest country in Africa demanded the withdrawal of the peacekeeping mission despite UN concerns about rampant violence in the DRC’s east. But Kinshasa says it considers the UN force to be ineffective in protecting civilians from the armed groups and militias that have plagued the east of the vast country for decades. The UN Security Council voted in December last year to accede to Kinshasa’s demand for a gradual pullout by the MONUSCO mission.

The UN force currently fields around 13,500 soldiers and 2,000 police across the three eastern provinces of Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu. Deployed in eastern DRC since 1999, the MONUSCO’s withdrawal will now take place in three phases, starting with the departure of peacekeepers from South Kivu by the end of April, and followed by the pullout of UN troops from North Kivu and Ituri. The gradual withdrawal from the mission is expected to be completed by 31 December.

The withdrawal comes as North Kivu faces the resurgent Tutsi-led M23 rebels who have seized large swathes of the territory. But as intense fighting resumed last month around the city of Goma, North Kivu’s capital, local people shout down the UN troops more than they praise them, as they accuse the peacekeepers of largely failing to curb violence by multiple armed groups.