Congo wants U.N. force to 'neutralize' rebels

UNITED NATIONS - Congo says it wants the U.N. Security Council to strengthen the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the African country so it can "neutralize" a new rebel movement and a force that helped perpetrate the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Congo's Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda N'tunga Mulongo said Friday his government also wants the U.N. force to monitor and protect his country's border with Rwanda.

Mulongo said he urged Security Council members at meetings this week to impose sanctions on those named in a U.N. report in July that accused high-ranking Rwandan officials of helping to create, arm and support the new M23 rebel movement.

Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo vehemently denies the accusations.

The conflict in eastern Congo is a spillover from Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

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