The European Union is considering sending peacekeepers to Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where scores have died since the town was overrun by rebellious soldiers, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said on Monday.
Michel, who arrived in Kinshasa on Sunday on an “emergency mission” that will also take him to Uganda and Rwanda, said the EU is mulling “an operation along the lines of Artemis” for Bukavu, the capital of Sud-Kivu province, near the border with Rwanda.
One year ago, as peace returned to most of the rest of the DRC after five years of war, the EU deployed 1Â 850 soldiers under Operation Artemis in the troubled northeast DRC town of Bunia, in the Ituri region, after ethnic massacres there claimed hundreds of lives in the space of a few weeks.
Artemis was led by France and had as its mission the protection of civilians, mainly in Bunia.
In September last year, it handed over to United Nations peacekeepers with a sturdier mandate: authorisation to open fire if civilian lives or its own troops were in danger.
Troops led by dissident General Laurent Nkunda captured Bukavu last week, despite the presence there of UN peacekeepers. At least 88 people are believed to have died in 10 days of fighting in and around the town.
The fall of Bukavu triggered protests in Kinshasa and other cities against the UN peacekeeping force in which at least 12 people were officially reported to have died.
Nkunda began pulling his troops out of the town on Sunday, but tension was still high in the region, with DRC President Joseph Kabila openly accusing neighbouring Rwanda of backing the dissident soldiers.
“I have come to show support for the transition government,” said Michel on arrival in Kinshasa on Sunday evening. — Sapa-AFP
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