The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is preparing to leave the central African country this year at the request of the government, according to Aljazeera.
The mission, also known as MONUSCO, which has been operating in the DRC for more than 13 years, closed a major base near the town of Bukavu in a ceremony on Thursday attended by MONUSCO head Bintou Keita and DRC military and government officials.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told a briefing at the organisation’s headquarters in New York on Thursday that peacekeepers from Pakistan, who made up the bulk of the force stationed in South Kivu province, were leaving the country after over 20 years of service.
“Since 2003, when they were first deployed, more than 100,000 peacekeepers from Pakistan have served in South Kivu, including 31 Pakistani soldiers who died in the line of duty, in the service of the United Nations and the people of the Congo,” he said.
Late last year, the Congolese government, re-elected after a vote in late December, said the increasingly unpopular mission had failed to protect civilians from armed groups. Some 2,000 UN soldiers were due to leave South Kivu by the end of April, bringing MONUSCO’s strength down to 11,500 peacekeepers, according to the government.
The government also ordered an African regional force, deployed last year to help end the fighting, to leave the country for the same reasons as the UN peacekeeping mission.
