Bukavu, 4 April 2011 - The United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) launched a sensitization campaign early this month to train elements of the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) on International Humanitarian Law. The campaign aims at empowering high ranking army officers with basic knowledge of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights issues with the understanding that they will, in turn, train their junior officers.

It is expected that once trained, these officers will be better equipped to deal with the voluntary repatriation of ex-members of armed groups through MONUSCO's transit camps set up in Sud Kivu, a province that borders Rwanda and Burundi.

The training, which started on 4 April in Kalehe, 40 km north of Bukavu, and in Kavumu, 35 km north-west of the provincial capital, will end on 25 May 2011. Over a hundred officers of the 10th Military Region have already been trained through MONUSCO 's Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme, and are now apt not only to deal with cases of prisoners of war, wounded soldiers, and ex-fighters who surrender, but also they can facilitate the voluntary return of combatants who wish to be repatriated.

MONUSCO's DDR program is giving logistical support by transporting trainers to the sites, but also by providing training material throughout this process.