The province of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been troubled by violence and massacres perpetrated by various armed groups for several months. Faced with this situation, the new commander of the MONUSCO force in the DRC, Lieutenant General Miranda Filho, recently made his first visit to Bunia, capital of Ituri. Its mission is to cooperate with the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) in joint operations aimed at protecting the civilian population.
During his visit, he was received by the Military Governor, Lieutenant General Luboya N’kashama and members of the provincial security committee. General Miranda Filho stressed that his priority is to guarantee the security of the population and that he is working in cooperation with the FARDC to achieve this objective. Cooperation between the FARDC and MONUSCO is good, as their common objective is to protect the civilian population. They are also in a transition phase to allow the FARDC the ability to continue operations after the departure of MONUSCO.
Lieutenant General Luboya N’kashama, for his part, expressed his support for joint military operations, and positively welcomes this visit by the commander of MONUSCO to jointly carry out future operations against armed groups. The resumption of military operations has already been announced, given that there was a time when they were interrupted to favor the non-military approach. Inter-community dialogues should continue to ensure that armed groups cease attacks against civilian populations. The intra-community dialogue will be organized in Aru with the aim of showing others that it is possible to live in peace in this region.
The MONUSCO commander also plans to visit Ugandan troops deployed in South Irumu as part of the pooling of forces to track down ADF/MTM.
General Miranda Filho is Brazilian and replaced Lieutenant General Da Costa of the Angolan army at the head of MONUSCO in the DRC. His visit is full of hope, despite the climate of tensions in the Ituri Province in the DRC