Here’s Oxfam’s Louis Belanger blogging for the Huffington Post, on what the UN must do to help civilians in the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo:

So earlier this week, the UN Security Council adopted unanimously a resolution that revised the mandate of UN peacekeepers to focus on the crisis in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. The force, known as MONUC, is authorized to have 22,000 soldiers and police.

Oxfam and the people of Congo`s call for prioritization of this “protection mandate” has been answered.

However, strong words on a piece of paper are not enough …

People caught up in this tragedy tell us that they cannot understand why the world’s biggest UN peacekeeping force is doing so little to help them. They are at the mercy of armed groups on all sides and offered little protection from rape, murder and abduction.

It’s time for UN peacekeepers to be led and given all the means to stop this madness.