UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo extended by one year as fighting rages

The UN Security Council has extended the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, known as MONUSCO, for a year, as fighting in the region escalated despite a US-mediated peace deal.

The UN’s most powerful body on Friday renewed the peacekeepers' mandate, keeping about 11,500 military personnel in the country, in a unanimously adopted resolution.

The Security Council also condemned an offensive by the M23 rebels, demanded Rwanda stop supporting the rebels and withdraw its troops.

The resolution comes as M23 claimed Wednesday to have withdrawn from Uvira, a strategic city in eastern Congo it seized last week, after pressure from the US.

DR Congo's government said the withdrawal was “staged” and that the rebels were still in the city.

US deputy ambassador Jennifer Locetta told the Security Council on Friday that M23 must immediately withdraw at least 75 kilometers (47 miles) away from Uvira.

M23 took control of the city last week in a deadly offensive that came despite a US-mediated peace agreement signed earlier this month by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington.

The accord didn’t include the rebel group, which is negotiating separately with DR Congo and agreed earlier this year to a ceasefire that both sides accuse the other of violating.

However, the accord obliges Rwanda to halt support for armed groups like M23 and work to end hostilities.

Congo, the US and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, although Kigali denies the claims.

The conflict has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, according to the UN agency for refugees.

The MONUSCO force arrived in Congo in 2010, after taking over from an earlier UN peacekeeping mission to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel and to support the Congolese government in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts.