UN extends DRC sanctions - by Nampa-AFP
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UN extends DRC sanctions
02 Dec 2009
UNITED NATIONS â€" The UN Security Council on Monday extended for a year sanctions aimed at protecting the Democratic Republic of Congo's fr...
UNITED NATIONS â€" The UN Security Council on Monday extended for a year sanctions aimed at protecting the Democratic Republic of Congo's fragile institutions from armed unrest.
Mineral trafficking, the main source of funding for irregular armed groups, was targeted with new measures.
In resolution 1896, drafted by France and unanimously adopted by the 15 council member states, the council extended a sanctions regime to November 30, 2010.
It includes a weapons embargo, air traffic control measures and sanctions against some private individuals.
The arms embargo, which dates back to 2003, is aimed at the multiple armed militias in the country's east.
The council voiced "concern about the support received by armed groups operating in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from regional and international networks".
The resolution also calls on experts to propose a strategy that would lead to a system for tracing minerals from the DRC, along the lines of the Kimberley process for diamonds.
MONUC, which has been in the DR Congo since 1999, is today the biggest UN peacekeeping mission in the world. By mid-January, it will include almost 20Â 000 UN troops after the end of the deployment of reinforcements of 3Â 000 men.
The bulk of MONUC's military contingent is based in the east of the country, which remains highly unstable and prone to violence. The UN troops help the DR Congo army to hunt down different armed groups, including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
Some members of the FDLR, ethnic Hutu rebels in Rwanda, took part in the 1994 genocide in that country which according to UN figures claimed about 800 000 lives. â€"
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Mineral trafficking, the main source of funding for irregular armed groups, was targeted with new measures.
In resolution 1896, drafted by France and unanimously adopted by the 15 council member states, the council extended a sanctions regime to November 30, 2010.
It includes a weapons embargo, air traffic control measures and sanctions against some private individuals.
The arms embargo, which dates back to 2003, is aimed at the multiple armed militias in the country's east.
The council voiced "concern about the support received by armed groups operating in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from regional and international networks".
The resolution also calls on experts to propose a strategy that would lead to a system for tracing minerals from the DRC, along the lines of the Kimberley process for diamonds.
MONUC, which has been in the DR Congo since 1999, is today the biggest UN peacekeeping mission in the world. By mid-January, it will include almost 20Â 000 UN troops after the end of the deployment of reinforcements of 3Â 000 men.
The bulk of MONUC's military contingent is based in the east of the country, which remains highly unstable and prone to violence. The UN troops help the DR Congo army to hunt down different armed groups, including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
Some members of the FDLR, ethnic Hutu rebels in Rwanda, took part in the 1994 genocide in that country which according to UN figures claimed about 800 000 lives. â€"
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