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)
