Africa

Home page

Africa

Five UN peacekeepers injured in Congo rebel ambush

05 March 2014 03:18 (UTC +04:00)

The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) said in a statement on Tuesday that the attack took place when two people on a motorcycle threw a grenade at the troop’s patrol in the area of Beni in North Kivu province on Monday.

"This unacceptable attack... does not in any way reduce our support for FARDC (DRC Armed Forces) in the fight against armed groups," MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler said in the statement without mentioning how seriously the troops were hurt.

"Our brief is to neutralize all the illegal armed groups in the east of the DRC and we are determined to carry it out," he added.

Several armed groups are active in Congo and are fighting for control of the country’s vast mineral resources, such as gold, the main tin ore cassiterite, and coltan (columbite-tantalite), which is used to make many electronic devices, including cell phones.

Since early May 2012, more than three million people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. About 2.5 million have resettled in Congo, but some 500,000 have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty and crumbling infrastructure.