The UN Security Council has unanimously agreed to send 3,100 more peacekeeping troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), while rebels said they remained committed to a pullback from the front lines despite an army attack.
British Ambassador John Sawers said on Thursday the 15-nation council wants to help contributing nations “as best we can in getting troops on the ground rapidly” once they decide to help out.
“Exactly how many weeks it will be, it’s not clear. But this is a matter of urgency,” Sawers said.
Countries have not worked out yet who will contribute the additional troops and police.
Several African nations, such as Senegal, Kenya and Angola, are among those that could contribute extra troops, council diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are still under way.
The Congo peacekeeping mission, the world’s largest such UN contingent, is currently authorized to have 17,000 peacekeeping soldiers and police in the vast Central African nation. Even so, they have been spread thin in an area as large as Western Europe and have been unable to stop the fighting.
Years of sporadic violence in eastern DR Congo intensified in August, when fighting heated up between the army and fighters loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, leaving at least 250,000 people displaced.
Nkunda says he is protecting Tutsis from Hutus who fled to DR Congo after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. But critics say he is more interested in power and accuse his forces of committing multiple human rights abuses.
Some fear the current crisis could once again draw in neighboring countries. DR Congo’s devastating 1998-2002 war split the vast nation into rival fiefdoms and involved half a dozen African armies.
On Thursday, rebels said they had fended off an attack from the army, pro-government Mai Mai militias and Rwandan Hutu rebels.
Rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa said rebel troops were attacked in Katoro, a small village near Kiwanja, about 70km north of Goma. Rebels fended off the attack after two hours “and the situation is now calm,” Bisimwa said.
He said rebels were still committed to keeping their troops pulled back from front lines further north, but warned that if the UN peacekeeping force “is not able to keep quiet in this area ... we’ll go and attack these groups who are trying to take control of that area.”
The report of fighting came a day after rebels pulled hundreds of fighters back from several frontline positions as promised in what the UN said was a welcome step toward brokering peace.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS