South Africa has welcomed the renewal of the UN’s Peacekeeping Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the strong focus on holding free and credible elections before the end of the year.
The Council unanimously adopted a resolution extending the mandate for one year while emphasizing the supporting role Monusco, which includes the role almost 1 200 SANDF troops will play in the lead up and during elections due to be held in December.
It’s a mission that could support the first peaceful transfer of power in Congo’s history. With a focus on protecting civilians and neutralizing negative forces, while emphasizing the upholding of human rights in the country. South Africa’s Ambassador to the UN, Jerry Matjila says it’s a good development.
“It a very good development because what the UN had done, what the Security Council has done is to say to the UN as a whole, lets focus on the issue which is 23rd of December, general election in the DRC. So for the first time ever we see such a huge global mobilisation of the UN, all its parts, in terms of Monusco, in terms of political issues, in terms of logistics, in terms of ensuring that we’ll have inclusive, transparent elections in the DRC.”
Supporting the electoral process is at the heart of the mandate renewal as the US Representative, Amy Tachco explained.
“By streamlining the number of non-priority tasks and directing the mission to allocate resources, according to the remaining tasks we have made clear that the mission and the council will work to fulfill our common purpose of elections. After all, without free, open and credible elections in December 2018. Everything else Monusco sets out to do will be complicated by political unrest and the spectre of violence.”
