President Joseph Kabila announced on Thursday night that he was suspending all mining operations around Walikale, North Kivu province, during a speech at a banquet in Goma attended by local authorities and representatives of the civil society.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) is on the defensive since the NGO International Medical Corps revealed early this week that rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and members of a local Mai Mai militia, raped at least 154 women in North Kivu, a few kilometers from a MONUSCO base.

The Security Council extended on Wednesday MONUC’s mandate in the Democratic republic of Congo until May 31, 2010. The 15 members of the UN body unanimously adopted resolution 1906 calling on peacekeepers to “use all necessary measures” to protect civilians.

The FDLR is one of the most brutal rebel force that Africa has ever known. They have been branded as terrorists by the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States.

Four days after Congo Government spokesman Lambert Mende lambasted Human Rights Watch about what he called “exaggerated” allegations on the situation in eastern Congo and the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) military operation (Kimia II) against the Rwandan Hutu militia FDLR, the NGO responded with new allegations against the FARDC and their Rwandan Defense Force (RDF) allies in another operation (Umoja Wetu) earlier this year against the FDLR.