First, the United Kingdom urges the parties in eastern DRC to continue to engage in good faith in the ongoing peace processes facilitated by the United States and Qatar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These processes, alongside leadership by the African Union, provide the best opportunity to deliver the peace, prosperity and security that the people of eastern DRC deserve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We thank all the facilitators for their efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now it is time for the commitments to be implemented.<\/p>\n
Second, the United Kingdom calls on all parties in eastern DRC to protect civilians and to facilitate humanitarian access in accordance with international humanitarian law.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom continues to support humanitarian efforts in eastern DRC through the provision of approximately $80 million of lifesaving financial assistance this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are greatly concerned by continued reports of human rights violations and abuses, including conflict related sexual violence, by the parties to the conflict, and in particular by M23 and Wazalendo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We remind all parties of their obligations under international human rights law and humanitarian law, and the clear demands of the Council set out in Security Council resolution 2773.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This includes the withdrawal of Rwandan Defence Forces from the DRC\u2019s territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom emphasises its full support to MONUSCO and its leadership and looks forward to upcoming discussions on MONUSCO\u2019s mandate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We stress that obstructions to MONUSCO\u2019s operations, particularly in areas occupied by M23, are unacceptable and must stop.<\/p>\n
Third, the United Kingdom notes with concern the growing constraints on civil space and freedom of expression across the region, as highlighted in the latest report by the Secretary-General.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We underscore the importance of safeguarding these fundamental rights, which are essential for inclusive governance, accountability, and long-term stability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And we urge all countries in the Great Lakes region, but particularly those approaching elections, to make every effort to uphold civic space and to protect freedom of expression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First, the United Kingdom urges the parties in eastern DRC to continue to engage in good faith in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-496399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115367451374827627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}