A resolution that eases a weapons embargo on the Democratic Republic of the Congo was approved by the UN Security Council on Tuesday. Kinshasa hailed the decision as “injustice corrected.”
The provision that demanded nations to notify the 15-member council of any arms sales or military support to the Congolese government has been removed by the resolution.
In its fight against militia groups, Kinshasa has long complained that the requirement adds an additional bureaucratic burden.
Since 2000, the DRC has been under a UN arms embargo, which was initially put in place due to the country’s pervasive violence.
The Security Council changed the sanctions regime in 2008 such that they now only apply to armed groups.
The government was nonetheless compelled by the regulations to inform a monitoring body of any arm procurement.
The Council extended the regime earlier this year while lowering the notice standards for some arms sales.
In spite of an increase in confrontations with the M23 rebels in the east, Kinshasa persisted in calling for the limits to be relaxed.
Allegations that diplomats in New York were impeding the Congolese military’s ability to defend civilians increased the pressure on them to take action.
“A battle won, an injustice repaired,” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya wrote on Twitter after the resolution was passed.
The Council also voted to renew the mandate of the UN’s DRC peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, for another year.
The M23, also known as the “March 23 Movement,” originally gained international notoriety in 2012 when it briefly overran Goma, a significant commercial center in the North Kivu region that is home to over a million people.
In 2013, UN and Congolese forces launched a coordinated effort to drive the rebels out. But after mostly going dormant for years, the M23 started fighting again last year after claiming that the government had broken a promise to include its soldiers in the army.
The neighboring country of Rwanda has been charged by the Democratic Republic of the Congo for supporting the M23, a charge that Kigali has consistently refuted.
