The UN mission was told to leave due to ineffective protection of civilians from armed conflict.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has helped fight rebels for more than two decades, has closed one of its key bases as it prepares to leave the central African nation this year. government request.
The mission, also known as MONUSCO, closed a large base near the city of Bukavu in a ceremony Thursday attended by Bintou Keita, head of MONUSCO, along with DRC military and government officials.
The base, along with others due to be closed by the end of the year, will be handed over to the military.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a briefing at the organization's headquarters in New York on Thursday that peacekeepers from Pakistan, who made up the bulk of the force deployed in South Kivu province, were leaving after more than 20 years of service.
“Since they were first deployed in 2003, more than 100,000 peacekeepers from Pakistan have served in South Kivu, including 31 Pakistani soldiers who have died in the line of duty, in the service of the UN and the Congolese people,” he said. he said.
The departure comes after the Congolese government, which was re-elected in a disputed vote in late December, said the increasingly unpopular mission had failed to protect civilians from armed groups.
The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and numerous other armed groups are active in the restive eastern regions of the country, including North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, where millions of civilians face violence and internal displacement.
About 2,000 UN troops were to leave South Kivu by the end of April, reducing MONUSCO's strength to 11,500 peacekeepers, according to the government.
14 UN bases are expected to be taken over by DRC security forces, followed by the gradual withdrawal of UN forces from North Kivu and Ituri.
MONUSCO has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for more than 13 years, having taken over the previous UN operation in 2010.
The government also ordered the African Regional Force, deployed last year to help end the fighting, to leave the country for similar reasons as the UN peacekeeping mission.