UN to begin Congo withdrawal in June

Troops from the troubled UN peacekeeping operation in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could begin withdrawing as early as June, Undersecretary for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy said on 5 March following a recent visit to the country.

"There was clear agreement on the critical tasks to be implemented before [the mission] would eventually leave," he said upon his return to New York, where he briefed the UN Security Council. "But the first troops might be able to leave - those from the west - around 30 June."

An evaluation mission remains in DRC to define a withdrawal strategy in line with requests from President Joseph Kabila, who faces re-election, and timed to coincide with June's 50th anniversary of Congolese independence.

It is expected that while troops will depart the relatively stable west, their numbers will be reinforced in the restive east, where clashes with an array of rebel groups continue at the expense of stability for the civilian populations in the resource-rich area.

Costing in excess of USD1 billion annually and with more than 17,000 personnel, the UN mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, is the largest peacekeeping operation in the world. Deployed since 2000 in the aftermath of a civil war that drew in seven countries from around the region, MONUC has had a dual mandate of civilian protection and support to the Congolese national army: itself an ill-disciplined amalgamation of various militias, rebel groups and politicised recruits, according to aid and human rights actors.