FROM THE FIELD: A UN peacekeepers-eye view of DR Congo

UN News/Joon Park

In Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi peacekeepers secure the local village before they go on patrol.


9 July 2018
Peace and Security


Africa is projected to have the highest demand for moving people to safety next year, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has the greatest needs of all, according to the United Nations refugee agency’s Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2019 report.


The report reveals that 163,000 people from the Central Africa nation will need international resettlement in 2019; a 10 per cent increase on this year.

Millions of civilians have been forced to flee fighting – with the UN refugee agency estimating that the country has at least 2.7 million internally displaced persons and roughly 450,000 refugees in other nations.

As armed groups continue to terrorize communities, they finance some of their activities by exploiting the country’s rich natural resources.

But the DRC is plagued by other challenges as well. From 1 April, the country experienced an Ebolaoutbreak, which the World Health Organization (WHO) helped to stabilize by shipping thousands of vaccine doses to stem the virus from spreading.

As of April, the UN Organization Mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo, referred to as MONUSCO, employees 20,600 personnel with an addition 18,316 in uniform.

The Mission engages on the ground in a broad range of activities, from promoting community violence reduction to raising awareness of child recruitment into armed groups, and reinforcing women's involvement in politics.

One UN staffer from our own Department of Public Information, was in DRC recently. Here's what he chronicled behind the scenes:

https://unnewsandvideo.exposure.co/b0eff56325eed0b382e968aee2d26891

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/07/1014291

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