Mugabe urges “adequate” UN force in DRC

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday urged the United Nations to deploy an “adequate” peacekeeping force to oversee the shaky ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), news reports said. “The United Nations must ... be urged to deploy an adequate peacekeeping force which is capable not only of coping fully with the vastness of the territory of the DRC, but also of dealing effectively with the complexity of the issues involved,” Mugabe was quoted as saying. “The DRC’s territorial integrity, its national sovereignty, as well as its security have to be guaranteed after the withdrawal of our forces. We have to insist on that.” Mugabe was speaking at the opening of a ministerial defence meeting in Harare of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), which was expected to discuss the DRC war as well as Angola’s 26-year conflict. His speech was likely the last time he will address the body as its chairperson, which until March was his permanent post. A SADC heads of state summit in Namibia agreed to end the permanent position and begin a rotating one-year chairmanship. A new chairman is due to be elected in August at the next regular heads of state summit in Blantyre.