UN starts drone surveillance in DR Congo

If the drones are successful in DR Congo, they could be used elsewhere

DR Congo Seeks Democracy

The UN mission in Democratic Republic of Congo has started to deploy unarmed surveillance drones to monitor rebel activity along the forested borders with Rwanda and Uganda.

This is the first time any UN mission has deployed drones.
The first two were launched from the eastern city of Goma, which was last year briefly occupied by M23 rebels.
The UN force in DR Congo played a key role last month in defeating the M23 but other militias still operate.
The BBC's Maud Jullien in eastern DR Congo says it has long been suspected that various armed groups in the North Kivu province get their supplies from neighbouring countries.

Both Rwanda and Uganda have denied repeated accusations that they supported the M23 rebels, which were recently defeated with the help of the 22,000-strong UN mission in DR Congo - the world's largest.
UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous told the BBC that the drones, or "unarmed, unmanned aerial vehicles" would be the "tool of choice" to monitor the activities of armed groups and the movement of civilians.
"We need to get a better picture of what is happening," he said.
He said that if they were successful in DR Congo, they could also be used in other UN peacekeeping missions.
The first two drones were made by an Italian firm, Selex ES, a subsidiary of the Italian giant Finmeccanica, reports the AFP news agency.
Mineral-rich eastern DR Congo has been wracked by conflict for the past two decades but the defeat of the M23 has raised some hopes of a more stable future.