The UN Security Council has sanctioned the use of a heavily armed international force which France has offered to lead for three months in the town of Bunia, in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The French Defence Minister, Mr Michele Alliot-Marie, said France would provide half of the 1,400 soldiers expected to be deployed in Bunia, where lightly armed UN peacekeepers are trying to protect thousands of civilians from rival ethnic militias.
The international force will not be a UN mission, but the 15-member Security Council voted unanimously under Chapter Seven of the United Nations Charter to authorise it to use deadly force ifnecessary. Diplomats said France had insisted on that.
The force's mandate is to protect the airport at Bunia and nearby refugee camps, and "if the situation requires it, to contribute to the safety" of the civilian population, UN troops and staff and humanitarian workers in the town.
At the insistence of France, council Resolution 1484 authorised the deployment until September 1.
It also noted that the governments of Rwanda and Uganda had expressed support for the deployment of an international force in the region, a battleground for several years between their national armies and rebels who fled to the DRC.
The resolution said the international force will "be deployed on a strictly temporary basis" and asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to make recommendations by mid-August for beefing up the UNpeacekeeping contingent in Bunia.
AFP