The United Nations Security Council has agreed that the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo will provide logistical support for next week’s elections, according to a letter seen by AFP.
The DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its vast mineral wealth. Voters are due to go to the polls on Wednesday.
Kinshasa has asked the UN mission there, known as MONUSCO, for help in transporting material needed for general elections next week, even as it pushes for that mission to leave.
The UN mission in the former Zaire, known as MONUSCO, is still present in three conflict-ridden eastern provinces but is due to withdraw at the demand of the government. Its mandate allows it to provide logistical support for the elections.
“Given the urgent need to begin preparing for the assistance that the DRC has requested… the members of the Security Council plan to inform the Secretary-General that Monusco is authorized to provide limited logistical support for the 2023 electoral process in any provinces requested by Congolese authorities,” the letter from the Security Council president reads.
But the help will be “within the mission’s existing resources and without impacting its ability to deliver on previously mandated activities”.
Armed groups plague much of eastern Congo, a legacy of regional wars that flared during the 1990s and 2000s. One such group, the M23, has captured swaths of territory in the region since launching an offensive in late 2021.
The government in Kinshasa has demanded the UN force leave after a presence of nearly 20 years, arguing it has not been effective in ending the fighting.
The Security Council is to vote next week on a withdrawal plan devised by Kinshasa and the UN mission.
The elections are for president as well as lawmakers at the national, provincial and local levels.
It is a daunting challenge as the country is huge — 2.3 million square kilometres (870,000 square miles) — and much of it lacks infrastructure.
Twenty-two people are running for president including incumbent Felix Tshisekedi, who is seeking a second term.
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