Swiss President pledges to advocate for east DR Congo conflict victims at UN

Swiss President Alain Berset, whose country will preside over the UN Security Council in May, pledged on Thursday in Kinshasa to work for the civilian population victims of the conflicts in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"We want to focus on those who are the first victims of insecurity," said the president of the Swiss Confederation at a joint press conference with his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi.

Alain Berset has been visiting the DRC since Wednesday evening, where, after the capital Kinshasa, he plans to go to the East, which has been plagued by violence from armed groups for nearly 30 years.

He will visit camps for displaced persons in Goma, capital of North Kivu province, where the M23 rebellion has displaced hundreds of thousands of people since the end of 2021. In Bukavu, in the neighboring province of South Kivu, he will meet with renowned doctor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege.

Having joined the United Nations only 20 years ago, Switzerland has been a non-permanent member of the Security Council since January, and will assume the presidency for a month in May.

"It sits with this approach that we know, the commitment to peace, peace processes, mediation, dialogue," said Berset. The Confederation also has "rules to preserve its neutrality" but, he added, "neutrality does not mean indifference".