Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information her Department holds on (a) the reasons for the closure of the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission base in Bibokoboko, South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo and (b) when that base will be reopened.

In October 2021, the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) dispatched a standing combat deployment to set up a temporary operational base in Bibokoboko. Its purpose was to assist in the safe and secure return of people displaced as a result of clashes between rival armed groups in Bibokoboko. MONUSCO have since facilitated the deployment of Congolese national security forces to the area. They are therefore shutting the base, which was always intended to be a short term deployment. As a result, we would not anticipate MONUSCO reopening the base unless the situation changed. The UK supports the work carried out by MONUSCO, to protect civilians, humanitarian personnel, and human rights defenders under imminent threat of physical violence, and to support the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts.