[Iran Press TV Latest] A massive UN peacekeeping effort in eastern Congo has failed to deliver a knockout blow to the Rwandan rebels, UN experts say. According to a UN report published on Wednesday, the local insurgents have brought a new territory under their control.
"Far from resolving the root causes of the violence, the presence of the world's biggest peacekeeping mission has aggravated the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces," Reuters quoted the UN report as saying.
The Congolese army, backed by the 25,000-strong UN force, launched an offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) earlier this year as part of a deal to improve ties with neighboring Rwanda, which was considered an enemy state during the 1998-2003 war.
While the UN Security Council has twice voted to continue peacekeeper support for the operations, rights groups and aid agencies have decried the displacement of more than one million villagers, thousands of rapes, and hundreds of killings.
Despite the surrender of more than 1,200 of its estimated 6,000-to-8,000 fighters, the FDLR continues to replenish its ranks through the active recruitment of both Congolese and Rwandan Hutus, the group said.
The rebels benefit from support networks in Africa, Europe and North America, as well as financing from its control of the east's lucrative tin deposits despite army efforts to push them out of mining areas.
"The Group calculates that the FDLR could earn at least several hundred thousand dollars and up to a few million dollars a year from this trade," said the report, which is due to be discussed by the Security Council on Wednesday.