Kinshasa, 23 October 2013: The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, is extremely concerned over persistent reports of child recruitment by armed groups in the DRC and calls on all actors to help stop and prevent this grave violation against children. According to the report published today [1], almost 1,000 cases of child recruitment by armed groups were verified by MONUSCO between 1…
Goma, 21 October 2013 - The last batch of the Malawi troops committed to the MONUSCO Force Intervention Brigade arrived in Goma, North Kivu province, on 7 October 2013. They will be part of the 3000- strong force to which Tanzania and South Africa are the other two troop contributing countries. Since the arrival of its first troops in June 2013, the Intervention Brigade has already gone into action resulting in the withdrawal of M23, 30 kms from…
Kampala, 21 October 2013: Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to the Great Lakes Region Mary Robinson, U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region and the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) Russ Feingold, Special Representative of the African Union Boubacar Diarra, European Union Senior Coordinator for the Great Lakes region Koen Vervaeke, and UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the DRC Martin Kobler took note at certain progress…
Kinshasa, 19 October 2013: MONUSCO deplores the lack of progress in prosecuting the perpetrators of gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including mass rape, committed in November 2012 in Minova, Kalehe territory, South Kivu province, and in neighboring villages by troops of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). Almost a year after these incidents, none of the presumed perpetrators of…
Kinshasa, 18 October 2013: The head of MONUSCO, Martin Kobler, and the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Mary Robinson, strongly condemned a new attack by the M23 against an unarmed MONUSCO helicopter, the second in less than a week. The latest attack occurred this morning when the helicopter came under direct fire from positions held by the March 23 (M23) rebel movement over Kibumba, Rutshuru, in the North Kivu. Martin Kobler and Mary…
Dungu, 8 October 2013 – Congolese armed Force (FARDC) officers In Dungu, Haut-Uélé district, in the Eastern province were trained by the Guatemalan peacekeepers of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) on the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS).The training ended on 8 October 2013. Altogether twenty officers were awarded certificates after receiving the training in an official ceremony, during which…
Kinshasa, 16 October 2013: “I congratulate Dr. Mukwege from the bottom of my heart. The Civil Courage Prize is the recognition of his work and of the whole staff of Panzi Hospital. More generally, it honors all those who fight heroically against sexual violence in the eastern D.R. Congo. It sends a strong message to the Congolese people: we must stand together and put an end to these atrocious human rights violations. We must put an end to sexual…
“MONUSCO air missions shall proceed” Kinshasa, 11 October 2013 – This afternoon, an unarmed MONUSCO helicopter came under direct fire from positions held by the March 23 (M23) rebel movement in the Rumangabo region. The Head of MONUSCO, Martin Kobler, condemned the attack in the strongest possible terms and recalled that MONUSCO air missions shall proceed. Mr. Martin Kobler further said: “M23 rebels will not prevent us from using the Congolese…
CPAD, an NGO organized a three-month training session in IT, marketing, English, and sewing for 50 women. MONUSCO financed this training through one of its Quick Impact Projects (QIP). On 16 August 2013, Sodeico, a Congolese recruiting agency and a partner of CPAD, organized a recruitment test for 22 women trained in IT, English and marketing in Kinshasa. On 13 September 2013, four women who passed the written tests were invited for oral…
7 octobre 2013 – As part of an official visit to countries in Africa's Great Lakes region, the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council have over the past few days met with various heads of State to discuss the implementation of the broad based peace accord agreed earlier this year. Signed in February by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) along with 10 other countries and four regional and international institutions under UN…