UN Peacekeepers Told to Leave DRC from December

By Samuel Ouma [caption id="attachment_108767" align="alignnone" width="1080"] DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, wants the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) in the country to leave the country starting in December 2023.[/caption] The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Felix Tshisekedi, wants the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) in the country to leave the country starting in December 2023. Tshisekedi told the annual United Nations assembly of world leaders on Wednesday, September 20, that despite being deployed twenty years ago, the mission has failed to settle the war in the country's east. “It’s time for our country to take its destiny fully in hand” and become the leading security force in Congo,” said President Tshisekedi. He stated that the government would initiate talks with UN officials to expedite and move forward the MONUSCO exit timeline from December 2024 to December 2023. Tshisekedi noted that the withdrawal was critical to ending the confrontation between the Congolese people and the mission. “It is illusory and counterproductive to continue to cling to MONUSCO to restore peace," he added. At least 43 people died, and numerous more were injured in the eastern city of Goma in early September as the Congolese military cracked down on planned protests against the UN mission. According to figures last updated on its website in February 2023, MONUSCO has 17,000 staff in the DRC, including 14,000 military personnel. Simultaneously, President Tshisekedi asked the Security Council to penalize all natural and legal people complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity. He also welcomed the recent US sanctions on Rwanda for backing the M23 terrorist group, a proxy of Rwanda, and one of its top officials involved in criminal operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Eastern Congo is besieged by armed rebels seeking a piece of the region's gold and other riches.