Pressure is mounting on the European Union peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo to stay on well after an Oct. 29 presidential run-off to head off the risk of violence in the aftermath of the vote, according to Reuters. A 1,000-strong EU force is due to begin packing up and heading home on Dec. 1, days after the planned announcement of results from a run-off between President Joseph Kabila and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba. "It's absolutely imperative that the EU extend their mandate until the end of the electoral cycle, which means the end of January," said Jason Stearns, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank. "It doesn't make much sense for the EU to withdraw troops only a week after the announcement of the election results." Congo's elections -- the first free polls in the former Belgian colony for more than 40 years -- are meant to draw a line under Africa's bloodiest conflict, a war that has killed 4 million people since 1998. Polling day for the first round on July 30 passed relatively smoothly but private armies loyal to the president and the former rebel leader clashed in the capital last month and at least 30 people were killed during three days of fighting. The violence highlighted the fragility of the polls, which have cost over $460 million and are supported by a $1 billion a year U.N. force, and increased calls for European soldiers to remain despite promises not to extend their 4-month mandate. "The EU troops led by Germany should prolong their mandate until the new administration is sworn in," Chris Patten, a former EU external relations commissioner, wrote this week in an editorial for the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The EU flew in reinforcements from neighbouring Gabon to support U.N. peacekeepers during the August fighting and its troops still patrol the chaotic city ahead of the second round.
