In a statement, the peacekeeping mission, known as Monusco, said that it had "co-signed a note on the accelerated, gradual, orderly and responsible withdrawal" from the country.
The note contains a plan and timeline for the withdrawal, but the peacekeeping mission offered few details beyond saying that it will be implemented in three phases.
Monusco is one of the world's largest and costliest UN peacekeeping missions, with an annual budget of around $1 billion.
Peacekeepers have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
since 1999 but militia violence has continued to plague the east of the country.
Dozens of gangs are active in eastern DRC, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.
Monusco's current 14,000-strong peacekeeping force is deeply unpopular due to perceptions that it has done little to stop violence.
The Congolese government has requested Monusco's "accelerated" departure.