The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has agreed to collaborate with the United Nations for a joint investigation on a series of violence in the Kasai province, where the two UN experts and their Congolese collaborators have died.
According to Congolese Minister of Human Rights Marie-Ange Mushobekwa, the government will take the lead in this investigation, stressing that the Congolese state had nothing to hide in this case.
Kinshasa has thus given its agreement allowing the United Nations, by its experts, to investigate the cases of repeated violence in this part of the DRC and also on the murder, last March, of two UN experts, namely Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp.
According to report from Radio Okapi, Kinshasa’s commitment is a response to the ultimatum issued to the Congolese authorities by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
On Tuesday, June 6, at the opening of the 35th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein gave 48 hours to the Congolese authorities to agree to participate in the investigation, failing which the UN would open an international investigation.