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| UN Mission to Fill up Military Vacancy in Southeastern DRC |
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UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will fill up the country's military vacancy in southeastern province of Katanga with two battalions in a month, the UN mission (MONUC) said Wednesday. The military vacancy in Katanga will be filled with a Benin battalion of 600 to 650 soldiers and a Pakistani battalion of 700 to 750 soldiers as well as a military hospital from Jordan, said interim MONUC spokesman Madnodje Mounoubayi at a weekly press conference. He noted that the Pakistani battalion and Jordanian hospital would be deployed in the DRC according to the UN Security Council's 1669 resolution after their mission in Burundi came to an end, to help secure the DRC's first democratic election in 45 years. MONUC does not have a military presence in Katanga for the moment, where fighting between the Mayi-Mayi milita and the national Army Force of the DRC (FARDC) has caused the displacement of 120,000 people since the end of 2005, said Mounoubayi, adding that the reinforcements will be deployed in northern and central Katanga. According to MONUC military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Federic Medard, two companies of soldiers will be stationed in Kalemie, by the lake of Tanganyika, and another two in Manono, 500km north from Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga. Four brigades of around 17,000 UN blue helmets are deployed in the DRC for the moment. One brigade of west division is stationed in capital Kinshasa and its surrounding areas and the other three brigades in eastern provinces of North-Kivu and South-Kivu, as well as in the northeastern border region of Ituri in the province of Orientale. (Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2006) |
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