The New York Times is reporting that, after the surrender of warlord Bosco Ntaganda in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations Security Council announced a new resolution allowing offensive military force to be taken against rebel groups in the country. A new “intervention brigade” will be able to do so with or without Congolese Army troops for one year “on an exceptional basis” in order to help create peace within the DRC. The mandate allowing such unprecedented action was sponsored by France, the United States, and Togo.
The New York Times writes:
The resolution … says the “intervention brigade” must have “a clear exit strategy.” It says the Council will determine its continued presence based on its performance and according to whether Congo has made sufficient progress in improving its security sector and creating a Congolese “rapid reaction force” that can take over responsibility for neutralizing armed groups and reducing the threat they pose to civilians and the government’s authority.
A United States deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, said coordination between the military and civilian sides of the United Nations mission remained crucial to ensuring the protection of women and children, and to preventing “the continuation of the horrible streak of sexual violence” in Congo.
The British ambassador, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, said he welcomed the resolution’s adoption as an important step toward peace and a time when the women of eastern Congo “no longer need to fear sexual violence and children are protected from the impact of conflict.”
Read more at The New York Times.
This news brief was written by Kaitlin Higgins, editorial assistant for The Burton Wire.
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