Chinese Peacekeepers Pulling Out of DR Congo
The 15,000 MONUSCO troops deployed in the vast central African country started to leave in February at the request of the Kinshasa government, which considers them ineffective.
The disengagement is to be carried out in three phases this year. Under phase one, military and police peacekeepers from 14 bases in South Kivu are set to leave by the end of April. Civilian staff are to go by June 30.
Some 270 Pakistani peacekeepers on February 28 handed over to Congolese police the base they used at Kamanyola, near the borders with Rwanda and Burundi.
The mission was set up in 1999 in a bid to halt the second DRC war, which saw local forces backed by Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe fight rivals supported by Uganda and Rwanda.
At its peak there were 20,000 UN troops in the country. More than 270 MONUSCO peacekeepers have been killed, according to UN figures.
Kinshasa has long accused MONUSCO of failing to protect civilians from the armed groups that have plagued the east of the country for three decades.
