Kinshasa, 29 February 2012 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) civil aviation has experienced many air disasters with heavy loss of human lives in recent years. With a view to improving air traffic, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) handed over to Congolese authorities, a set of equipment to modernize 23 meteorological stations across the nation.

This equipment included air traffic control radios and meteorological data collection devices. MONUSCO will install the equipment, and train the personnel to use it. The equipment was handed over as part of MONUSCO's assistance to the program for the rehabilitation of airport facilities in the DRC.

The equipment was received by the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Joseph Martin Kitumba. The airports to benefit from this equipment upgrade were selected in mutual agreement between the government and MONUSCO.

Training will take an active part in air safety improvement in the DRC, which will also include repairing some runways, installing control towers and training personnel.