Meeting with Coordinator of Group of Experts on Democratic Republic of Congo

On 11 December 2017, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo received a briefing from the Coordinator of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the Group’s midterm report in pursuance of paragraph 6 of resolution 2360 (2017).

During the meeting, the Coordinator of the Group of Experts noted that the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remained dire.  He highlighted that the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) and Conseil national de la résistance pour la démocratie (CNRD) had been weakened albeit they continue to pose serious threats.  The only active recruitment among the armed groups reported by the Group of Experts was from the Forces démocratiques alliées (ADF).  The Coordinator noted that the Group had found troubling cases of sexual violence and slavery in Tanganyika Province.  The Group also condemned the attack against United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo MONUSCO at Semuliki, North Kivu, on 7 December.  The Coordinator expressed regret that a number of the alleged perpetrators of the murders of former experts Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan, who were killed in Kananga in March 2017, continued to remain at large.

Committee members welcomed the briefing and expressed their support for the Group’s midterm report.  They added their voices to the concerns raised over the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the limited arrests in the murders of two members of the Group, the acts of sexual violence in Tanganyika and, finally, the attacks against the United Nations peacekeepers.