The UN Security Council on Monday unanimously decided to extend and expand the arms embargo and related sanctions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which have been in place since 2003, for another year.
Members of the Security Council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution continuing the regime of sanctions, which consists of an arms embargo against all armed groups that are not part of either the government's integrated army, known as the FARDC, or police units, through Nov. 30 next year.
The 15-member panel also extended the mandate of the Group of Experts dealing with the DRC for the same period, and expanded its remit to include
the creation of recommendations on due diligence guidelines for the buying and processing of lucrative mineral products in the troubled African
country.
The Group of Experts has been asked to focus its activities on North and South Kivu, Ituri and Orientale provinces in the east of the country,
which remains plagued by fighting and unrest since the end of the DRC's brutal civil war earlier this decade, the resolution said.
The mandate of the Council subcommittee dealing with the DRC has also been expanded to take account of changing notification requirements for UN
Member States complying with the embargo and sanctions, said the resolution.
The Security Council "calls upon all States, particularly those in the region ...to implement fully the measures specified in this resolution, and
to cooperate fully with the Committee in carrying out its mandate, and further calls upon those Member States that have not previously done so to report to the Committee, within 45 days from the date of the adoption of this resolution, on the actions they have taken to implement the measures" under the resolution, said the resolution.