Two more battalions of national troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have completed military training provided by the UN peacekeeping force, the UN said in a press release Thursday.

About 1,800 soldiers of the national armed forces, known as FARDC, received three-month military training from members of the Pakistani contingent with the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC).

They received training not only on military tactics, weapon handling, logistics and professional ethics but also in human rights, child protection, the Geneva conventions and MONUC's mandate.

"This training contributes to the progressive improvement of the professional capacities of the FARDC, with greater cohesion in its units, a marked republican ethos, as well as the example given by its officers," Alan Doss, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the DRC, said at a ceremony marking the completion of the training program.

"The implication of MONUC in the training of the FARDC constitutes a major advance of the United Nations in the reform of the DRC security sector," he added.

MONUC has so far trained 12 FARDC integrated battalions, and it continues to support the efforts of the Congolese government in the creation of a professional army, with the goal of training 28 FARDC integrated battalions by September 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)