U.N. Could Reduce DR Congo Mission from 2015

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the biggest in the world, said Thursday it could cut its presence from next year, despite continued bloodshed in the east of the country.

Martin Kobler, the head of the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission, said "we could reduce our presence" from 2015 if the government's authority was restored.

Already a delegation from U.N. headquarters in New York "has come to see how MONUSCO could reduce its forces, because the security situation in many places is getting better," Kobler said in an online chat session.

However, the United Nations has expressed concern in recent weeks over a worsening of the situation in North Kivu province in the east, where numerous Congolese and foreign armed groups are active.

Beni, an area in the north of the province, has seen a series of killings that left some 200 dead between October and November. Victims, including women and children, were mostly stabbed or hacked to death.

The massacres have been blamed on the mainly Muslim rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces and National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU).

The most recent unrest took place Thursday, when armed clashes left four ADF-NALU fighters and one Congolese soldier dead, the military said.

Congo's army intervened in the area earlier in the week for the first time since October to quash violence that claimed three lives on Monday night. 

"These confrontations will continue until we've neutralized the ADF," said Colonel Celestin Geleka, a spokesman for the Congolese army operation battling the Ugandan rebels.

MONUSCO has been in the Democratic Republic of Congo for 15 years and currently has 20,000 troops, most of them deployed in the east.