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UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) verified on Thursday that 56 combatants hospitalised in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi are Rwandan.
The UN peacekeeping mission, known by its French acronym, MONUC, reached this conclusion after screening the soldiers of the Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), MONUC reported on Friday.
This was the same assessment it made in Kamina: that all identified persons speak fluent Kinyarwanda, say that they are from Rwanda, and passed a military practice test.
"The verification mission took place in a friendly atmosphere and with the positive cooperation of the local authorities," MONUC reported.
MONUC established that the majority of the ex-combatants were between 22 and 30 years old, and had gunshot wounds. "The majority of them are recovering from their injuries, although there are several who are still ill and one who is in critical condition," MONUC stated.
On 21 November, MONUC completed the screening and census of the FDLR troops at Kamina military base in Katanga province, where it identified 1,805 ex-combatants, of whom 29 were hospitalised.
Next week, MONUC will screen and identify another 155 FDLR combatants hospitalised in Kinshasa.
The MONUC operation is the preliminary phase of the disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, reinstallation and reintegration of armed groups, a process which, like the withdrawal of all foreign troops from DRC territory, is called for in the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement and UN Security Council resolutions.
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