United Nations, Oct.5.— The UN special envoy for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Friday urged the Security Council to provide extra troops for his peacekeeping mission to cope with an upsurge in rebel attacks.

“I talked to the Council about reconfiguration of our forces to see to what extent we can get more mileage out of what we’ve got to respond to the situation,” Alan Doss, who heads the UN mission in DRC (MONUC), told reporters.

He said he also requested “a surge capacity ... some additional troops (and air mobility assets)”, although he refused to go into “operational details”, except to say that an “enhanced capacity to detect movements of groups in a difficult terrain” such as drones would be useful.

Doss however said after briefing the council on the situation in the restive central African country that members made it clear that “resources available for new commitments are very tight.”

“The situation in North Kivu (province) is above all very, very preoccupying ..."

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