KINSHASA: Nearly 180 civil society and rights groups have urged strengthened powers for the UN mission in DR Congo to ensure peaceful elections due in November and help end unrest in the country's volatile east.
The appeal by the 179 groups came just ahead of the expiry of the UN mission's mandate at the end of the month, and in the wake of political unrest over fears President Joseph Kabila could seek to stay on beyond the end of his mandate by 2016.
The groups said it was vital for the UN mission, known by the French acronym MONUSCO "to have a strong mandate and to ensure that this is respected on the ground."
A strengthened MONUSCO presence was vital for legislative and presidential elections due in November. Protests over Kabila's alleged attempt to seek a third term has claimed up to 42 lives this year, according to rights groups.
The mission "should be ready and capable of documenting and publicly denouncing rights violations linked to the elections nationwide," they said.
"This would involve a strong presence in the provinces ...and deeper collaboration with civil society."
The UN mission has been deployed in DR Congo since 1999 and comprises some 20,000 troops essentially based in the country's east.
"Eastern DRC continues to be the scene of several armed clashes," the groups also said in a joint statement.
"There are several unsafe pockets in this part of the country where dozens of armed groups are still active," they said.
Tens of thousands of people died and more than 100,000 fled their homes during clashes between a militia and army forces in February and March 2013 in the east, according to the UN.
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