





United Nations police experts provided their expertise to the PNC in identifying traces, clues and evidence following the killing of a response team member in Butembo.
BUTEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo, August 7, 2019 – MONUSCO police has lent its support to Congolese National Police (PNC) Investigators in a bid to determine the circumstances surrounding the recent attack on the Beni-Butembo road axes aiming a convoy of the Ebola virus disease response team. The investigations are aimed to gather elements that would help identify the perpetrators of the attack, with a view to possible prosecution.
UN technical and scientific police expert in Butembo, Silviu Anton, visited the scene of the incident for technical findings along with PNC Research and Investigation Squadron Team. Escorted to the scene by elements of the Armed Forces of the Congolese Democratic Republic (FARDC), they immediately conducted searches and examined the clues and evidence available. The team was able to detect several bullet impacts on the vehicles, one of which had its engine seriously damaged. The attacked convoy consisted of three vehicles carrying Congolese and the World Health Organization doctors escorted by the PNC. No loss of human life was reported.
MONUSCO Police often assist PNC investigators with their technical and scientific police expertise. A few weeks ago, United Nations police experts provided their expertise to the PNC in identifying traces, clues and evidence following the killing of a response team member in Butembo.
MONUSCO Police experts also took part in the investigations, alongside their PNC counterparts, into the murder of the two UN experts in Kasaï; the trial is still on. Two years ago, they participated in an investigation that took place in Bukavu following a supposedly car bomb attack.
Those experts work for SOCSU, a unit that tasked to combat organized crime. They can be deployed wherever MONUSCO Police are present upon decision by MONUSCO Police Chief, General Awale Abdounasir. Their role is to back PNC’s investigations and to train PNC technical and scientific police officers.















The city of Goma has seen its second confirmed death as the result of infection which could lead to the first active transmission of the disease inside the regional capital.
Andre Heller, Ebola Response Director at the International Rescue Committee, said, “The second confirmed case of Ebola in Goma is very alarming. This outbreak is far from under control. The IRC has been engaging in infection prevention and control in major health centers in Goma, scaling up in the city in an effort to stem the spread of the virus here as we do in other hotspots surrounding Beni and Butembo.”
The IRC has been responding to the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu since its declaration in August last year working in more than 70 health facilities throughout Beni, Mabalako, Butembo and Goma and leading on infection prevention and control (IPC). The IRC is also working in women’s and children’s protection, and integrating Ebola-related protection concerns in areas where the IRC supports primary health care services.
The IRC has been working in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1996 responding to the humanitarian crisis in the east. It has since evolved into one of the largest providers of humanitarian assistance and post-conflict development, with life-saving programming in health, economic recovery, women’s and children’s protection, and livelihoods.