UN extends Mission but could end it in 2006

The UN Security Council extended the mandate of the UN Mission in Burundi (ONUB) on Wednesday for six months until 1 July 2006, noting that the Mission could end thereafter. "The withdrawal of the ONUB force could, at the request of the government, be completed in the second half of 2006," according to a statement on Council's resolution S/2005/810 issued by UN News. Currently there are some 5,000 UN peacekeepers in Burundi. ONUB's downsizing is set to begin on Wednesday with the departure of 180 Mozambican soldiers. Contingents from other countries are set to begin departing in February 2006. "A detailed drawdown plan for the remaining approximately 3,000 ONUB troops would be developed after a joint assessment to be carried out by ONUB and the National Defence Force in January 2006." UN News reported. In November, a 15-member Council voted to extend ONUB's mandate for only two months to allow time for discussion of ONUB's future. Despite the successful transition in 2005 to a democratically elected government, the Council expressed "serious concern" at the continuation of hostilities by the rebel Parti pour la liberation du peuple hutu-Forces nationales de liberation. Wednesday's resolution authorised the temporary redeployment of ONUB military and civilian police personnel to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.