The head of MONUSCO, Bintou Keita on Monday, October 9 told the Human Rights Council that since the start of this year, an average of nine people have been killed per day in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the members of the armed groups.
Speaking during his intervention at the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the human rights situation in the DRC, Bintou Keita said that the human rights situation remains affected by armed violence in the provinces of Ituri, Mai-Ndombe, Kwilu, Kwango, Kongo-Central, Kinshasa, North Kivu and South Kivu.
“As the country prepares for elections in December 2023. Human rights violations and abuses in conflict areas have caused increasing numbers of victims and exacerbate social inequalities.” She explained.
Further she condemned the escalation of violence between “armed groups allied to the Government and the M23” in Masisi over the past ten days and which has caused more than 84,000 internally displaced people.
According to the head of MONUSCO, the implementation of the Luanda road map is the only possible outcome of this conflict.
“I call on the authorities and other partners at the local level and in the sub-region to continue the political processes to achieve a cessation of hostilities and guarantee long-term stability. MONUSCO supports these political processes as well as the implementation of joint military operations with the national armed forces to achieve the definitive disarmament of national and foreign armed groups,” noted Bintou Keita.
She calls on the M23 to dismantle its parallel administration and return to the positions on the ground as set out in the Luanda road map.
“Their presence and activism worsen the humanitarian and human rights situation,” she added.
Huge humanitarian needs
For the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the DRC, humanitarian needs remain enormous in the face of the reduction of humanitarian space.
It calls on the authorities to take measures to ensure continued access to humanitarian spaces, particularly to displaced sites, so that humanitarian actors, including the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office, can monitor and provide responses, including on gender-based sexual violence and conflict-related sexual violence.
Bintou Keita welcomes the progress made in the areas of justice reform, the fight and prevention of sexual violence and transitional justice.
“In terms of transitional justice, I encourage the authorities to reproduce in other provinces of the country the efforts made in Kasai with several projects on Peace, Justice, Reconciliation and Reconstruction, as well as the operationalization of Provincial Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission ,” she recommended.
