BRUSSELS: The European Union is struggling to respond to a UN request for help in safeguarding elections in Congo this year because countries are reluctant to offer soldiers, diplomats said yesterday.
The United Nations asked the EU in January for a force of about 800 troops to help stabilise the Democratic Republic of Congo ahead of its first free elections since independence from Belgium in 1961. They are due to be held by June.
The EU had said it would come up with a final decision by the end of this month but may not be able to commit by then because of a shortfall in troop commitments, and because no nation has come forward to lead the operation.
Envoys from the union's 25 countries held talks in Brussels yesterday, but officials played down prospects of progress.
Britain has said it will not contribute forces because it is overstretched with commitments in Iraq and elsewhere.
French envoys said France was unwilling to lead the EU mission because it is already engaged in peacekeeping operations in Ivory Coast.
Germany is the only other EU nation with sufficient planning capacity to lead such an operation, but it has also shown unwillingness to be in the lead role.
The UN would prefer an EU force on the ground in Congo but would accept other choices. An EU fact-finding mission to Kinshasa earlier this year concluded that a standby force on reserve outside the country might cover most needs.
The Congo elections, under a constitution drafted with EU mediation last year, are meant to draw a line under five years of civil war from 1998 to 2003, during which an estimated four million people died of hunger, disease and violence.