DRC: UN to reduce MONUSCO work force

The United Nations Security Council will vote Friday for a 7% reduction in the number of UN soldiers and police in the DR Congo.

The number of peace keepers is expected to reduce from 19,815 to 18,316. It is a hard blow for the Secretary General of the United Nations who recently requested the deployment of 300 additional police officers in the DRC as the country prepares for tensed elections.

The reduction will be a sigh of relief for Congolese authorities who have been campaigning for the reduction. This option became unavoidable after the Trump administration decided to reduce its contribution to the expenditures of the United Nations in the peacekeeping field.

France has warned that drastic cuts in the workforce and budget allocated to MONUSCO is like playing with fire.

MONUSCO is the UN’s largest peace keeping force in the world.