KINSHASA: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the body’s mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo is entering its “final phase,” but warned the situation in the conflict-hit country has “deteriorated sharply.”
In a report addressed to the UN Security Council, Guterres delivered a stark assessment of the turmoil in the DRC and set out a plan for the “accelerated and responsible withdrawal” of the UN’s MONUSCO mission after almost 25 years in the country.
The 15-page document published on Thursday pointed to heightened regional tensions and a worsening humanitarian situation over the last year, with “hundreds of thousands of civilians being forcibly displaced.”
“Sexual violence against children more than doubled from 2021 to 2022,” the report added.
It said that in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, the two areas worst affected by the violence, 28 and 39 percent of the population are displaced respectively — around four million people.
At the heart of these conflicts is the resurgence of the M23 rebel group, which has “seized large swathes” of territory, it said.
The rebels have “established parallel, illegal administrations” and carried out “arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions,” the report said.
The document made no mention of Rwandan troops being present alongside the M23 on Congolese soil, contrary to recent reports by the UN Group of Experts on the DRC that led many countries to condemn Rwanda for its involvement in the conflict.
The final departure of the UN mission has been at the heart of debates on the DRC’s future for years, and is a source of tension and populist rhetoric in the country.
“MONUSCO continues to be a focus of popular discontent and frustration over its perceived inaction,” Guterres said.
In line with the stated wishes of the DRC’s government, the UN reaffirmed its willingness to pull MONUSCO out, but warned “a premature withdrawal... would have consequences for the civilians relying on the Mission for their protection and safety.”
In September 2022, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi told France 24 he believed there would be no reason for MONUSCO to remain beyond the December 2023 presidential election, when he is standing for re-election.
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UN mission in DR Congo entering ‘final phase’ after 25 years
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UN mission in DR Congo entering ‘final phase’ after 25 years
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres laments deteriorating humanitarian situation worsened by the resurgence of the M23 rebel group
Zimbabwe opposition says constitutional ‘coup’ under way
- The accusations came after the cabinet approved amendments that would allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his term in office
HARARE: Leading Zimbabwe opposition figures accused the government Wednesday of a constitutional “coup” after the cabinet approved amendments that would allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his term in office.
Sweeping changes to the constitution accepted by the cabinet Tuesday include extending the presidential term to seven years and follow a decision by the ruling Zanu-PF that Mnangagwa should stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2028.
The amendments will be presented to parliament, which is weighted in favor of the Zanu-PF, but the opposition insists they also need to be put to a national referendum.
“The process that is currently happening in Zimbabwe is a coup by the incumbent to extend his term of office against the will of the people,” opposition politician and fierce government critic Job Sikhala told AFP.
“We have got an incumbent who wants to railroad himself, using the tyrannical and dictatorial tendencies of his rule, into another two years to 2030,” he said.
He said his National Democratic Working Group had asked the African Union to intervene.
Mnangagwa came to power in 2017 in a military-backed coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, who ruled the southern African country for 37 years.
He was elected to a five-year term in 2018 and again in 2023 but has been accused of allowing rampant corruption to the benefit of the Zanu-PF — which has been in power since independence in 1980 — while eroding democratic rights.
Sikhala, a former lawmaker with the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party, was arrested in South Africa last year for alleged possession of explosives. He says they were planted in his vehicle in an apparent assassination attempt.
“What is unfolding in Zimbabwe is not constitutional reform. It is a constitutional coup,” Jameson Timba, a CCC leader who has established a group called the Defend the Constitution Platform (DCP), said in a statement on X.
The president and his party are using “formal processes” such as cabinet decisions “to entrench power without the free and direct consent of the people,” he said.
Sweeping changes to the constitution accepted by the cabinet Tuesday include extending the presidential term to seven years and follow a decision by the ruling Zanu-PF that Mnangagwa should stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2028.
The amendments will be presented to parliament, which is weighted in favor of the Zanu-PF, but the opposition insists they also need to be put to a national referendum.
“The process that is currently happening in Zimbabwe is a coup by the incumbent to extend his term of office against the will of the people,” opposition politician and fierce government critic Job Sikhala told AFP.
“We have got an incumbent who wants to railroad himself, using the tyrannical and dictatorial tendencies of his rule, into another two years to 2030,” he said.
He said his National Democratic Working Group had asked the African Union to intervene.
Mnangagwa came to power in 2017 in a military-backed coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, who ruled the southern African country for 37 years.
He was elected to a five-year term in 2018 and again in 2023 but has been accused of allowing rampant corruption to the benefit of the Zanu-PF — which has been in power since independence in 1980 — while eroding democratic rights.
Sikhala, a former lawmaker with the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party, was arrested in South Africa last year for alleged possession of explosives. He says they were planted in his vehicle in an apparent assassination attempt.
“What is unfolding in Zimbabwe is not constitutional reform. It is a constitutional coup,” Jameson Timba, a CCC leader who has established a group called the Defend the Constitution Platform (DCP), said in a statement on X.
The president and his party are using “formal processes” such as cabinet decisions “to entrench power without the free and direct consent of the people,” he said.
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