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Killings of Tanzanian & Malawian peacekeepers & other topics - Peacekeeping chief

1,490 views · Published 16 November 2018 · 40:21 · Indexed 9 October 2026

Channel: United Nations · 2018 · News & Politics

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Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, briefs reporters on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Following the killings of one Tanzanian and six Malawian peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix today (16 Nov) said that attacks by armed groups, particularly the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), “now constitute a major obstacle to collective efforts to fight Ebola.” 

Lacroix, who was joined by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the DRC, Leila Zerrougui, said these attacks “lead to more displacement of population, which increase the risk of the virus further spreading” and they “result in the temporary suspension of activities on Ebola, resulting in new cases not being identified on time, and the provision of treatment being delayed.”

The seven peacekeepers were killed during joint operations carried out by the UN stabilization mission and the Government’s forces, known by the French acronym FARDC, against the ADF in North Kivu’s Beni territory, in the east of the country.

Lacroix said, "we determined that more had to be done, and after careful preparation and coordination with the FARDC, we decided that we had to take proactive action in order to degrade the capacity if the ADF, and therefore weaken their ability to harm the population as well as disrupt the Ebola related efforts.”

Zerrougui, for her part, said “our role is not to go and kill people. It’s to compel them to lay down their arms. That’s the objective. It’s to end the threat against the population. We are not going to finish an enemy. It is not our role. We are there to build peace. We are there to ensure that the population is protected.”

In a statement, Secretary-General António Guterres called on all armed groups to stop their destabilizing activities that continue to add to the population’s suffering and further complicate the Ebola response.

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