President Felix Tshisekedi’s troubled Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will have a United Nations (UN) presence in excess of 13 000 uniformed personnel in country for another year as the world body commits to peace, stability and security in the central African country.
The UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted Resolution 2 765 (2024) at its Friday, 20 December meeting, ending speculation MONUSCO (UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in DRC), the longstanding DRC mission which replaced MONUC (UN Organisation Mission in DRC) in July 2010, would wrap up operations on 31 December this year. The speculation was reinforced by UN personnel exiting and handing a number of MONUSCO bases to DRC authorities during the year.
The official line from the world body reads: “The SC today [20 December] extended for one year the mandate of MONUSCO, expressing grave concern over the ongoing offensive by the 23 March Movement (M23) in North Kivu, in violation of the ceasefire, and the unauthorised presence of external forces from a neighbouring State in the eastern part of the country”.
The mission’s new mandate expires on 20 December 2025 and includes – “on an exceptional basis and without precedent to peacekeeping’s basic principles” – its Force Intervention Brigade (FIB). For the next 12 months MONUSCO has an authorised troop ceiling of 11 500 military personnel, 600 military observers and staff officers, 443 police personnel and 1 270 personnel in formed police units.
The bulk of military personnel in MONUSCO come – numbers-wise – from Bangladesh, Nepal, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Tanzania, Malawi, Uruguay and Kenya with the top 10 contributors police-wise also in terms of numbers, being Senegal, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Djibouti, Niger, Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso and Tunisia.
Key MONUSCO strategic priorities – protecting civilians, supporting stabilisation and strengthening State institutions and key governance and security reforms – remain unchanged. The mission is authorised by the UNSG to “use all means at its disposal … to promptly and effectively prevent armed groups’ attacks against civilians”.
One of the armed groups is named as M23 (23 March Movement) about which “grave concern” is expressed about its ongoing offensive in North Kivu – in violation of a ceasefire agreed to in the Luanda Process earlier this year. The resolution further makes mention of the “unauthorised presence of external forces from a neighbouring start in the eastern part of the country [DRC]”.
Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania are troop contributing countries (TCCs) to the FIB and also comprise the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission in DRC (SAMIDRC), extended earlier this month (December) to mid-December 2025.
The resolution takes withdrawal into account “requesting a tailored approach to MONUSCO’s gradual, responsible and sustainable withdrawal, considering evolving conflict dynamics and protection risks in hotspot areas across [the] North Kivu and Ituri provinces”. This strategy is due to be shared with the UNSC in March.
