"The peacekeeping troops are neither trained nor equipped to deal with the kind of violence that erupts from time to time," UN spokesperson Fred Eckhard said.
He quoted the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, as saying that "without decisive action", there could be a bloodbath in the town of Bunia, in the northeastern Ituri region of DRCongo.
Guehenno had told the Security Council that nearly 700 UN troops had been deployed to Bunia, Eckhard said, but "the situation might nevertheless spin out of control, leading possibly to the massive killing of civilians".
In a statement on Saturday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said "the international community must make every effort to quickly address this dire situation".
Eckhard declined to go into details of what the UN Secretariat wanted until the Security Council had heard an updated report from Guehenno's deputy, Hedi Annabi. – Sapa.
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