By Chris Muhizi for MCN.
The rampant confrontations in the eastern DRC takes thousands lives of innocent civilians every year.
According to MONUSCO, since January of this year, armed groups have killed over 900 individuals in the Djugu, Irumu, and Mambasa (Ituri) regions.
In Bunia, the Congo Peace Center hosted a session on mining governance. Marc Karna Soro, chief of the UN mission in Ituri, provided these statistics.
In reality, for a couple of days, the mining specialists and other notables from Djugu and Mambasa consider problems with the “management and exploitation of minerals” that support the armed groups in their distinct organizations.
The goal is to discover the connections between the use of minerals to fuel armed groups in this region of the country and violent conflicts.
This is being done in accordance with the recommendations of the Nairobi accords in order to bring peace back to the whole Ituri province.
According to Marc Karna Soro, the illegal mining of minerals causes military conflicts that end in the deaths of civilian populations.
In order to maintain MONUSCO’s accomplishments even after it leaves the DRC, he therefore exhorts these players to work together.
Source: Okapi radio.
Blaise Bahise, the director general of the Congo Peace Center Organization, who is leading this project in three cities across the nation—Bunia (Ituri), Bukavu (South Kivu), and Beni (North Kivu)—states that the recommendations that result from these discussions will be delivered to the technical secretariat of the Nairobi process.
