President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday said he was committed to working with the United Nations, which has deployed 17 600 peacekeepers in the Central African nation.
”The president has said that it’s important to continue working together with the United Nations … in realising the goals of development [and] the provision of basic services to the people,” UN Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro told reporters after meeting Kabila.
Migiro said the president also underscored that his government would work with the world body in ”dealing with issues of security sector reforms that involve the army, the police and the judiciary system”.
”The president has also assured us of his resolve to continue the process of democratisation in the country, to strengthen the various organs in the Parliament so that they can play their role,” she said.
Last year an arduous three-year post-war transition culminated in the massive Central African country’s first democratic vote since independence in 1960.
During a visit to Kinshasa in January, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the progress made in DRC, but emphasised that ”much more needs to be done”.
Tensions have been running high in the country since government troops clashed with opposition leader and failed presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba’s guard last month, leaving between 200 and 500 people dead.
Following the clashes, which were sparked by plans to integrate Bemba’s guards into the army, his opposition Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) walked out of Parliament over security concerns.
Bemba has since flown to Portugal, officially for medical treatment.
Migiro said that the UN, for its part, had pledged its ”continuing support and solidarity with the government and the people of the DRC”.
The UN force in the DRC, Monuc, comprises 17 600 soldiers and is currently the organisation’s biggest peacekeeping mission. — Sapa-AFP