By John Stephen Katende

25^th February 2013:

Democratic Republic of Congo’s resource-rich east region is once again on the brink of a major conflict, a senior U.N. official warned on Friday last week as he urged the U.N. Security Council to urgently approve plans for a peace enforcement unit to combat armed rebel groups.

The warning, published by several news agencies like Reuters, quoted the head of the U.N. mission in Congo (MONUSCO) Roger Meece telling the Security Council that the creation of a peace enforcement unit within the peacekeeping force – which would be a new move for the United Nations – was “…an urgently needed and important response to the existing situation on the ground.”

According to Reuters, the Congolese government has reached what it called “an uneasy truce…with M23 rebels”.  Uganda, which was also accused by the UN Group of Experts of providing logistical and diplomatic support to the M23 rebels, is now hosting peace talks.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also said in a report on MONUSCO on Tuesday that the command, equipment quality and fighting ability of M23 rebels when they captured Congo’s frontier city of Goma in November suggested that they had external support, but he did not say where from.

The UN Chief in Congo warned of “…increased fears and rumours in the area of an imminent resumption of large-scale military actions.” He said the overall situation is volatile and precarious, and could break down at any time into large-scale conflict without much, if any, prior warning.

“…Our forces and resources are stretched very thin over a broad area.” Meece pointed out, adding that the M23 forces “…maintain an appearance of being well supplied, well provisioned, and well-armed” and that the rebels “…continued to recruit new combatants, including through the use of force and widespread recruitment of minors.”

M23 began taking parts of eastern Congo early last year, accusing the government of failing to honour a 2009 peace deal. That deal ended a previous rebellion and led to the rebels’ integration into the army. They have since deserted the army.

DR Congo’s U.N. Ambassador Basile Ikouebe also urged the Security Council to quickly approve the deployment of a peace enforcement unit for MONUSCO. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due to officially recommend to the 15-member council next week that such a force be created and diplomats have said the move will likely be supported.

Hope of peace deal

Meanwhile, other reports indicate that leaders of the 11-member International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) were invited to Addis Ababa last Sunday, February 24 to signed a UN-brokered peace deal.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia had been invited END: Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates

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