The UN Security Council on Monday renewed for another year an embargo on weapons destined to foreign and domestic armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The resolution, adopted unanimously, extends until July 31, 2007 the embargo on weapons headed to fighters in eastern part of the country.
The measure also asks UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to renew for the same period the mandate of a group of country experts charged with overseeing the embargo.
The resolution also asks the experts to include in an upcoming report, due on December 20, recommendations on measures to be taken to halt the illegal exploitation of the Congo's natural resources to fund the armed groups in the country: diamonds, leather, cobalt, zinc, manganese, uranium, niobium and tantalum.
The council resolution also subjects political and military leaders who have enlisted child soldiers or who have committed human rights violations to individual sanctions such as travel bans and the seizure of assets.
Such sanctions have so far been imposed on political and military leaders of armed groups or Congolese militias who stood in the way of disarmament and the voluntary re-integration of their fighters into society.
