A top United Nations official said Wednesday 7th June, 2023, during a visit to DR Congo, that peacekeepers should withdraw from the conflict-torn central African country “as quickly as possible” yet responsibly. Addressing reporters in the capital Kinshasa, UN Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, also warned that the Congolese state had to step up its response to armed groups to avoid creating a “security void that would be fatal.

The UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUSCO, is one of the largest and costliest in the world, It has been present in the country since 1999. The force has a current strength of about 16,000 uniformed personnel, mainly deployed in Congo’s east — a mineral-rich region that militias have plagued for three decades.