UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Congo and Rwanda have agreed to deploy permanent teams of experts in two troubled border towns to monitor a tense security situation.
Chief U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Thursday the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbor to the east reached an accord Tuesday in the Rwandan capital of Kigali at the first meeting of the Joint Verification Commission, a body set up last month to improve bilateral relations.
The two Central African states agreed to send teams of military experts from each country to the towns of Goma and Bukavu in the eastern DRC, the spokesman said. The teams, led by U.N. military officers, were to undertake investigations on the ground and monitor developments.
Clashes have taken place frequently in or around Goma and Bukavu over the past decade, with many people also moving back and forth across the border between the Congo and Rwanda to escape violence.
The JVC will hold its next meeting in the Congolese capital Kinshasa in December, Eckhard said.
The U.N. Organization Mission in the DRC, known by the acronym MONUC, serves as the support unit for the commission.
