15 February 2013 – The United Nations food relief agency today said it will fly in 20 metric tons of emergency food supplies to recently displaced persons in the town of Punia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), one of the hardest areas to reach in the eastern part of the country. "Bringing food assistance to Punia is costly and also poses an immense logistical challenge," says the World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director in DRC…
Goma, 14 February 2013 – The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) held an awareness-raising session in Goma on Thursday, 14 February 2013, to inform local women on its mandate. Over 400 women, most of them members of Goma-based women's associations, turned up at the event organized by MONUSCO's Public Information Section, with the support of other substantive sections and the Nord-Kivu…
Bukavu, 14 February 2013 – On 6 February 2013, some fifty women leaders and a number of local administrative authorities of the territories of Kalehe and Mwenga, Sud Kivu province, took part in a day of reflection and exchange of ideas on the subject of "Women's participation in protection mechanisms". The day was organized by the Gender Affairs section of the regional office of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the…
Goma, 11 February 2013 – Following the deferment of the signing of the Framework Agreement on the future deployment of the joint UN and African Union International Neutral Force last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, several civil society activists in Nord Kivu had voiced pessimistic views about the future of such a Force. It is important to recall that the entire Congolese population especially in Nord Kivu had greeted the announcement of this…
Kisangani, 8 February 2013 – The National Plan of Action to combat the recruitment and use of children as well as other serious forms of violations of children's rights by the armed forces and security services of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was officially launched in Province Orientale. The ceremony was organized in prelude to a workshop for national army and police officers that took place in the provincial capital, Kisangani. The key…
Bukavu, 8 February 2013 – A training workshop for 75 court clerks, including 16 women, all hailing from Nord and Sud Kivu provinces, is taking place in Bukavu, the capital of Sud Kivu. The workshop, which started on 4 February 2013, will end 11 days later. This meeting is an initiative of the Justice Support Section of the United Nations Organization Stabilization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), in partnership with the United…
6 February 2013 – The head of United Nations peacekeeping today highlighted the role being played by "blue helmets" in a variety of hotspots worldwide, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sudan, and told journalists that a UN mission in Mali looks increasingly likely. "All indications are that this is the way this is heading, and we are getting ready for that," Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping…
Goma, 8 February 2013 – "We have witnessed the difficult conditions under which displaced persons (IDPs) live in camps here. They face so many challenges", said Liliane Ploumen the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade last Tuesday, while visiting the Mugunga 3 IDP camp in the provincial capital of the Nord Kivu province. According to the camp manager, the Mugunga 3, which is just about 10 km west of Goma, is everything but…
Dungu, 5 February 2013 - On Tuesday, 5 February 2013, the Child Protection section of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), UNICEF and the office of the Administrator of Dungu territory jointly organized the official launching of the Action Plan on combating recruitment and abuse of child rights by armed and security forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The ceremony took place…
Bunia, 5 February 2013 – Community police, a concept often misused in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but with no significant impact on the population, is undergoing a thorough review in Ituri district, Province Orientale. The Police component of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) is actively engaged in bringing back some meaning to this concept. In this context, an eight-week…