Kinshasa, 30 August 2010 – Pursuant to rapes earlier this month in North Kivu, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki - moon decided to dispatch on the ground the Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations. Atul Khare who arrived in Kinshasa on August 28 for a one-week mission that will take him to the regions of Kirumba and Kibua in North and South Kivu

Given the seriousness of the events that occurred in Kibua region, where over 150 people from fifteen villages in the axis Mpofi - Kibua had been victims of rape from July 30 to August 2, 2010, the Assistant Secretary General for Peace keeping Operations, Atul Khare , arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC ) " to work with Roger Meece , the Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in DRC ( MONUSCO ) .

The Secretary -General Ban Ki -moon also asked his Special Representative on the issue of sexual violence in conflict, Margot Wallström , to support the UN response on this incident.

In Kinshasa , Mr. Khare had a series of interviews with civilian and military officials of the Mission and with the Congolese authorities and representatives of the United Nations system in the DRC . He will travel to North Kivu on August 31 and September 1, and to South Kivu on September 2, before returning to New York the next day where he will report to Secretary -General and address the Security Council