By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday it has procured an unarmed surveillance drone from Italian defense electronics firm Selex ES, a unit of Finmeccanica, that will be deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the coming weeks.
It will be the first time the United Nations has used such equipment and, if the trial use by peacekeepers in eastern Congo is successful, officials and diplomats also hope the drones could be used by missions in Ivory Coast and South Sudan.
"Unarmed UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will allow our peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo to monitor the movements of armed groups and protect the civilian population more efficiently," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.
"The selected vendor is the Italian company Selex ES. The UAV is known as the Falco and is designed to be a medium altitude, medium endurance surveillance platform capable of carrying a range of payloads including several types of high resolution sensors," Nesirky said.
Thick forests, rugged terrain and the scarcity of roads on Congo's eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda have complicated U.N. peacekeepers' efforts to control the resource-rich area.
Congo and U.N. peacekeepers have been battling a year-long insurgency by M23 rebels. U.N. experts have accused Rwanda of sending troops and weapons across the border to support the M23. Rwanda denies the accusation.
"The deployment of the UAV is planned in the coming weeks," Nesirky said.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, told Reuters earlier this month that the United Nations had signed the commercial contract for the surveillance drone on July 12, but did not initially name the company.
The United Nations has also deployed a 3,000-strong Intervention Brigade as part of its Congo mission. The brigade has been charged with aggressively neutralizing armed groups and is this week carrying out its first operation in eastern Congo.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, said on Tuesday its troops would disarm, by force if necessary, anyone other than members of the Congolese security forces found carrying weapons within the zone after a 48-hour grace period.
The United Nations has also set aside money to deploy surveillance drones eventually in Ivory Coast to monitor its border with Liberia following a recommendation by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a request from the West African country.
Ban has also suggested surveillance drones as an option for the U.N. Security Council to consider to boost the effectiveness of the world body's peacekeeping force in South Sudan.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Vicki Allen)

VOA News

News / Africa

UN Sets Up DRC Security Zone

FILE - M23 rebels sit in a vehicle as they withdraw from the eastern Congo town of Goma, Dec. 2012.

August 01, 2013

U.N. forces have established a security zone in two eastern Congolese cities to rid the area of what they call "unauthorized weapons."

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Thursday that the goal of the zone is to provide better protection to the more than one million civilians living in the city of Goma and nearby Sake, including internally placed persons.

On Tuesday, the U.N. mission in Congo said it was giving people in the zone who were not part of the national security forces 48 hours to hand in their weapons.

It said any civilians with weapons after the deadline would be considered an "imminent threat" and U.N. peacekeepers would take measures to disarm them.

In a statement Thursday, U.N. officials say the security zone is not an offensive operation and does not target any armed group.

The zone is being set up after a series of attacks against the Congolese army by M23 rebels. The U.N. has said indiscriminate fire during these attacks has caused civilian casualties.

The group is one of many militia and rebel groups operating in Congo's North Kivu province, fighting for political power and control of the region's rich mines.

Nesirky said as part of the security effort, U.N. and Congolese security forces "will continue patrols to ensure that the region is free of unauthorized weapons."

The M23 briefly took control of Goma last year and still controls parts of North Kivu province.

The group is made up of former rebels who were integrated into the Congolese army in a 2009 peace agreement. The rebels later deserted the army, complaining of discrimination and poor treatment.

UN envoy 'shocked' over eastern DR Congo abuses

The new UN special envoy for Africa's Great Lakes region, former Irish president Mary Robinson, expressed her "shock" Tuesday over human rights abuses in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo/FILE

By AFP
Posted Wednesday, May 1 2013 at 03:16

In Summary

In March, the UN Security Council unanimously approved the creation of a brigade of more than 2,500 troops to help MONUSCO curb violent unrest in the region, where Rwanda and Uganda have been accused of backing rebels.

GOMA

The new UN special envoy for Africa's Great Lakes region, former Irish president Mary Robinson, expressed her "shock" Tuesday over human rights abuses in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

"I'm shocked to see thousands of people displaced, women raped, in sum the massive violations of human rights in North Kivu which are continuing," Robinson said on her first visit to the volatile, mineral-rich region since taking up the post last month.

"I am committed," the renowned rights activist told reporters at the airport of North Kivu's capital Goma.

Speaking alongside Roger Meece, the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MONUSCO), she said: "We want a political, diplomatic solution, but also to strengthen protection for civilians."

Robinson is leading political efforts to bring an end to more than two decades of conflict in the region, and has vowed to help build the trust needed for a recent regional peace agreement to work.

"This framework must work," she said of the UN-brokered accord signed by 11 African heads of state on February 24. "It gives hope to the population."

Under the accord, the 11 states vowed not to interfere in the affairs of their neighbours, and DR Congo President Joseph Kabila promised democratic advances and improved security.

In March, the UN Security Council unanimously approved the creation of a brigade of more than 2,500 troops to help MONUSCO curb violent unrest in the region, where Rwanda and Uganda have been accused of backing rebels.

South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi were to provide troops to the 3,000-strong brigade.

The rebel M23 movement has warned that it will retaliate if attacked by the brigade.

"The UN brigade will play an important role," Robinson, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Tuesday.

Robinson, who began her first trip to the region in the DR Congo capital Kinshasa, left later Tuesday for Rwanda.

Her week-long tour will also take her to Uganda, Burundi and South Africa, wrapping up with a visit to the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia.

UN Peacekeepers Start Enforcing Security Zone in Eastern Congo
Radio Okapi - August 1, 2013
	A 48-hour ultimatum given by the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo to armed groups around Goma and Sake to disarm or be disarmed expired on Thursday. The spokesman for the UN mission, Carlos Araujo, said the security zone will be enforced to secure more than one million people, including displaced people living in the area.
Rwanda 'recruiting for M23 rebels'
BBC News - July 31, 2013
	Four Rwandans have told the BBC the army forcibly recruited them to fight for the M23 rebel group in neighbouring eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The four said they were seeking asylum in Uganda after fleeing the fighting.
UN mission sets up security zone in eastern DR Congo, gives rebels 48 hour ultimatum
UN News Centre - July 30, 2013
	The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo announced that it will, for the first time, use its intervention brigade to enforce a security zone around the flashpoint city of Goma in the eastern part of the country, giving rebels 48 hours to disarm.