Fresh military personnel will be added to the UN peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo to counter the expansion of the conflict in the eastern part of the country, a UN official said Wednesday.
Herve Ladsous, the chief of UN peacekeeping operations, said a brigade, which consists of 2,000 or more troops, would be added to the UN mission in Congo, one of the largest peacekeeping forces in
the world with more than 20,000 military, police and civilian personnel.
"We have to move against those armed groups," Ladsous said at UN headquarters in New York following discussions with the UN Security Council on ways to fight rebel troops in the DRC.
Ladsous said the concept behind the additional deployment is taking shape through consultations with countries in the Great Lakes region of Africa. It would involve the disarming and neutralizing of
armed rebels who have been responsible for severe human rights violations and atrocities in eastern DRC.
Ladsous also said the UN has been using unarmed aerial vehicles to collect information about rebel movements in the DRC on a case-by-case basis, adding that the information is needed by UN
commanders to fight the rebels. It also is shared with governments in the region.
"It's basically a flying camera," said Ladsous, who refused to use the word drone because of the perceived connection with drones that have been used by the US to target terrorists elsewhere in the world.
This is the first time UN peacekeepers have used such a surveillance system, which was given green light by the Security Council and the neighboring countries.
"We'll see how this experiment goes," Ladsous said.