United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday asked the Security Council to send an extra 320 UN police to the Democratic Republic of Congo after a deal to end a dispute over elections stalled, raising fresh fears of violence.
Two additional units could be deployed to the DR Congo's second city of
Lubumbashi and to Kananga, "which are likely to be electoral hotspots" and where there is no UN police, he said.
In his report however, Guterres argued that UN peacekeepers were needed to help the country avert a slide toward more violence.
After months of violence, the influential Catholic Church brokered a deal in late December that would have paved the way for elections and possibly an end to President Joseph Kabila's rule.
Kabila's second and final constitutional term ended on December 19.
Guterres said the political deal remained "stalled," with a dispute over the appointment of a new prime minister emerging as a major obstacle.
The risk of violence is "increasing, and is expected to rise further the longer the implementation of the political agreement remains stalled, prolonging the current political uncertainty," he said.
MONUSCO has documented 5,190 human rights violations across the country last year, a 30-per-cent increase from 2015, said the report.
DR Congo security forces were responsible for 64 percent of those violations, which include the extra-judicial killing of 480 civilians.
"The national police remained the main perpetrators of human rights violations, totaling 1,553 abuses," said the report.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/34617494/un-chief-seeks-to-boost-un-police-in-dr-congo/
