Goma, 21 mars 2011 – The Uruguayan contingent rotated its troops on 21 March following the completion of their 12 month-service in Goma, North Kivu province. The first deployment of Uruguayan servicemen in North Kivu dates back to 2008. In 2009, a group of Uruguayan peacekeepers was deployed to Kimua locality, deep into the Walikale forest, an area which, for more than 10 years, was largely in the control of combatants of the Democratic Forces…
Kisangani, 23 March 2011 – An African Union delegation comprising some 20 members arrived in Kisangani, the capital of Province Orientale, on 22 March. The joint expert mission is trying to put in place a strategy to better coordinate future operations against the Ugandan rebel movement, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) active in the sub-region. The mission was undertaken within the context of implementing the conclusions of the inter-ministerial…
Bukavu, 23 March 2011 – While on a field trip to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Roger Meece, attended a medal parade by the Pakistan contingent on 23 March in Bukavu. The Force Commander of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) was also on hand for the parade, along with a number of high-ranking provincial authorities. Among these also were the President of…
Mbandaka, 23 March 2011 – Jerôme Bokele is 44 years old. He now sits as a provincial Member of Parliament for his party, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC). As a newcomer to the Assembly and owing to his unusual cultural and social background, he pledges to do politics differently. His tenure had generated some controversy for three months, before it was eventually validated during a plenary session on March 12. This is an historic…
Goma, 22 March 2011 – The Uruguayan contingent in the UN Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) unveiled a monument dedicated to the memory of those who died during conflicts in North Kivu in Goma on 22 March. Uruguayan peacekeepers have been in the region since 2008 and the unveiling of this monument came days after the contingent completed its troops' rotation. During the ceremony, the governor of the province, Julien Paluku, expressed…
Mbandaka, 23 March 2011 – Some 50 women leaders from the North and South Ubangi districts of Equateur province held a round table discussion at the office of the UN Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) in Mbandaka on 23 March to establish ways and means of empowering the womenfolk in the society. With "Facilitating Women's Participation in Society" as the theme, the discussion was part of a series of events to commemorate the…
Kinshasa, 21 March 2011 – Some 50 senior military officers of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), most of them majors and lieutenant-colonels, visited the Force of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) at the Mission's Headquarters in Kinshasa on 21 March. The officers had just ended their induction training at the Kinshasa military academy. Their visit was to acquaint themselves with the…
Kisangani, 16 March 2011 - The Rule of Law section of the regional office for the UN Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) and a delegation from the Justice and Human Rights Ministry visited the detention center in the locality of Osio, near Kisangani on March 15. The group had gone to look into the detention conditions of this high security prison that houses 191 inmates, including 30 sentenced to capital punishment, 18 to life, and…
Dungu, 21 March 2011 – For sometime now, insecurity in Dungu territory, Eastern province led farmers to give up their activities as it became impossible to venture even five kilometers from their villages without exposing themselves to attacks from armed gangs. But today that appears to be a thing of the past. This is because of the escorts that MONUSCO, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been providing for the farmers…
Goma, 17 March 2011 – A huge amount of ammunitions were destroyed in recent months at Mubambiro-Sake, 27 km south of Goma, South Kivu province, by the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center (UNMACC), in collaboration with the South African mine-clearing company, Mechem. Altogether 52,834 explosive items were destroyed. They included detonators, hand-launched flares, rounds of small arms ammunition, hand grenades, mortars and artillery…