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New mandate required for MONUC

[Eastern DR Congo] Near Goma. This is a MONUC helicopter, waiting to transport polio vaccine to remote regions of eastern DRC during National Immunization Days. NIDs in DRC have been hugely successful - to the point that we have not found a single case WHO/Sven Torfinn
Past polio vaccination campaign in eastern DRC
    KINSHASA

    Amos Namanga Ngongi, head of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), MONUC, has said that the mission requires a new mandate in order to accompany the Congolese during a transition period leading up to national elections.

    "The United Nations Secretary-General will have to submit proposals to the Security Council for a new role to be assigned to MONUC," Ngongi said on Wednesday during a news briefing in the capital, Kinshasa.

    He said that the transitional period which would come into being once the new institutions had been put in place, as provided for in 17 December Pretoria accord, was not part of MONUC's current mandate.

    He added that MONUC would perform no role in the formation of a national army for the DRC. "Nowhere in the world, the United Nations got involved in the formation of a national army," he said. Regarding a new police force, he added that MONUC would organise refresher courses for a joint police team, if requested, following the example of the UN civilian police trained in Kisangani.

    The UN Security Council (Resolution 1445), on 4 December expanded the deployment of MONUC to 8,700 military personnel. The mission currently has a force of 4,309 uniformed personnel, comprising 455 military observers, 3,803 troops and 51 civilian police. These are supported by 549 international and 636 local civilian personnel.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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