UN Security Council urges DRC parties to fully implement peace deal

The UN Security Council on Monday called on the relevant parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to fully implement a March agreement.

The 15-member body heard a briefing in an open meeting from former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the secretary-general's special envoy for the Great Lakes region.

Austria's UN Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting, the council president for this month, told reporters afterwards that council members have taken note of the progress made so far in the implementation of the March 23 agreement.

The peace agreement was signed between the DRC government and the mainly Tutsi National Congress for People's Defense (CNDP), formerly led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, after months of negotiations.

Council members thanked the special envoy as well as his co-facilitator, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, "for their important work in the Great Lakes Region," Mayr-Harting said.

They encouraged the "parties to work together in the spirit of compromise and commitment to achieve full implementation," he said.

Obasanjo told reporters that "the slide to war that threatened the region last year was effectively reversed."

"But what we have successfully treated were only the symptoms, not the underlying ailments that have led to repeated crises in the region," Obasanjo added. "Without dealing effectively with the underlying issues, peace can neither be durable nor irreversible."

Source: Xinhua