UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday voted to renew the mandate of the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for another year.
Resolution 2502, adopted unanimously by the council, extended the mandate known as MONUSCO until Dec. 20, 2020.
The France-drafted resolution maintained the dual strategic priorities of the mission: protection of civilians and supporting the stabilization and strengthening of the DRC state institutions.
It also began to take steps toward the eventual closure of MONUSCO, beginning with the request to the UN secretary-general to work with the DRC government to create an exit strategy, with benchmarks, to be proposed to the Security Council no later than Oct. 20, 2020.
The DRC has for many years been beset by armed groups as well as poverty and poor governance. Since August 2018, the country has been grappling with an Ebola epidemic that has so far claimed more than 2,200 lives.
MONUSCO took over from an earlier UN peacekeeping operation in the DRC on July 1, 2010. It has been authorized to protect civilians, humanitarian personnel and human rights defenders and to support the government of the DRC in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts.
