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Armed mutiny in Congo threatens regional security: UN envoy

13 June 2012 04:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United Nations envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo has warned that an armed mutiny led by two warlords operating in the eastern Congo is threatening the security of that part of the country and the entire region of Africa, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Roger A. Meece, the UN Secretary Generalâ€™s Special Representative and the Head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that it is vital to quickly put an end to the rebellion led by rebel leaders Sultani Makenga and General Jean Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, Xinhua reported.

Meece said that the mutiny, which has led to the worsening of security and the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians, â€œnow threatens a general destabilization of the Kivus and region, and dramatically increases the general threat to millions of civilians.â€

â€œThe people of eastern Congo have already suffered too much and for too long, and any actions that prolong violence and armed conflict in the region must stop,â€ he added.

Meece called on regional and other countries to take â€œall actions necessary to ensure any external support is stopped.â€

In late May, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced that the humanitarian situation was deteriorating significantly in the eastern Congo as fighting between rebels and government forces spread from North Kivu province to Walungu, Shabunda, Kalehe, and other districts in South Kivu province.

More than 10,000 Congolese citizens have fled to Rwanda and Uganda since early May.

Led by Ntaganda, hundreds of former members of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebelled against Kinshasa in April in protest over mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC).

The CNDP was a rebel militia group that split from the FARDC. In 2009, a peace treaty was signed by the rebels and the Congolese government, which integrated the CNDP into the FARDC.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on for over a decade and left over 5.5 million people dead.