Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders strongly condemns the recent attacks on 4 May against a helicopter of MONUSCO and on 5 May against a convoy carrying Tanzanian units of the MONUSCO Intervention Brigade (FIB). The latter attack was particularly heavy, as it resulted in the death of two persons,  a number of injured persons and several missing.

Minister Reynders deplores the resurgence of violence by armed groups in the Grand Nord region in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), under which the civilian population considerably suffers. It demonstrates the insecurity in this part of the DRC and underlines, as the UN Security Council recently mentioned in resolution 2211 of 26 March 2015, the importance of an increased support from MONUSCO « to the government of the DRC to enable it to deal with security problems and to extend the authority of the state as stated in paragraph 5 of the Framework Agreement  » of Addis Ababa.

In August 2013, a Tanzanian soldier belonging to the Intervention Brigade died while intervening to protect civilians, shortly after his arrival in Goma in order to reinforce the action of MONUSCO. Minister Reynders presents his condolences to the family of the victims, to their fellow troop members and to the Tanzanian people who again pay a heavy price for the participation in the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the MONUSCO.

 

Shervin Labani