Tanzanian force arrives in Congo

GOMA, Congo - A contingent of about 100 Tanzanian troops arrived in eastern Congo on Saturday, a first step in assembling the new United Nations intervention brigade, said a U.N. spokesman.

The Tanzanian troops are the first batch to form the U.N. intervention brigade to be deployed in eastern Congo after a Security Council resolution in March, said peacekeeping mission spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Basse.

On March 28, the U.N. Security Council voted a resolution that renewed the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo forone year, and created a special intervention brigade that has an aggressive mandate that allows it to fight armed groups, rather than merely defend civilians.

The intervention brigade commander arrived in Goma on April 23, but troops meant to arrive by the end of April have only just started arriving in eastern Congo. The rest of the troops will arrive in stages, but no clear deadline has been given so far.

Malawi and South Africa have pledged to contribute troops to the U.N. force.

The need for an intervention force became clear in November, when the U.N. peacekeepers merely stoodby as Congo’s M23 rebels took the provincial capital of Goma. The rebels eventually withdrew from the city two weeks later, but the fall of Goma convinced persuaded the international community to create a brigade with a more assertive mandate to try to put an end to the turmoil in which that has plagued eastern Congo for years.

But with just over 3,000 special troops to battle more than 25 armed groups in the Kivu region alone, the new U.N. brigade risks being spread too thin, say military experts. Already eastern Congo’s M23 rebels are training fighters in guerrilla tactics to fight the U.N. troops.

Front Section, Pages 9 on 05/12/2013

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