The United States warned Monday that withdrawing UN forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as Kinshasa has requested, would be premature.
Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood warned that an abrupt withdrawal of MONUSCO would most likely leave a security vacuum that state authorities cannot fill, adding that it would lead to increased activity by armed groups.
Wood's statements came during a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UN posts throughout the continent face calls to evacuate from government officials and demonstrators.
Locals have criticized the UN mission in former Zaire as violence from armed groups continues to rattle the country's resource-rich east.
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Violent protests have erupted against MONUSCO, which has been accused of failing to safeguard residents.
The UN is due to vote on its peacekeeping soldiers in Mali later this week after Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop demanded their evacuation "without delay," blaming them for failing to fulfil security demands.
According to diplomatic sources, the UN will likely grant Mali's appeal.
Wood added that MONUSCO cannot – and should not – remain in the DRC indefinitely. However, there is widespread agreement that the DRC government will not have met the benchmarks agreed upon as the minimum conditions for MONUSCO's withdrawal by the end of 2023.
The Security Council approved a plan for a phased pullout in DR Congo in 2020, establishing boundaries for shifting UN troop duties to Congolese forces.
The mission was extended by the council late last year. Simultaneously, it requested Secretary-General Antonio Guterres provide alternatives for MONUSCO reconfiguration in July.
MONUSCO, which has been in force since 1999, is one of the UN's most essential and costliest missions ever undertaken. Kinshasa has proposed leaving after the December general
elections.
