Security Council strongly condemns killings in eastern DR Congo, calls for government probe

The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the 13 August killing of at least 50 civilians in a village in the restive North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), by suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

In a press statement issued late yesterday evening, the Council also expressed “deep concern regarding the persistence of violence in this region, where more than 700 civilians have been killed since October 2014,” and stressed that the DRC Government “conduct a thorough and prompt investigation into these attacks in order to ensure that those responsible are held to account.”

The statement about the attack in the area of Rwangoma village by suspected elements of the Ugandan-based ADF, follows similar expressions of concern by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top officials in the region, Said Djinnit, the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, and Maman Sambo Sidikou, the head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

For their part, Council members called on the DRC Government the to take further military action, under international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law – and with the support of MONUSCO in accordance with its mandate – to end the threat posed by the ADF and all other armed groups operating in the region.

They recalled that “drivers behind different armed groups’ activities are varied and that there is no purely military solution to the problem of armed groups,” and emphasized the need for “comprehensive military and civil responses to these armed groups.”

The Security Council members reiterated their support to MONUSCO and called on all parties to cooperate fully with the Mission and to “remain committed to the full and objective implementation of the Mission’s mandate.”