Oxfam urges UN to stay in Congo on eve of Ban trip

KINSHASA, Jan 26 (Reuters) Aid agency Oxfam today urged the United Nations not to reduce its peacekeeping force in Congo, warning on the eve of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's visit that quitting could return the war-racked state to chaos.

Democratic Republic of Congo's 17,000-strong UN mission, the world's largest, helped re-establish order following a 1998-2003 war and kept the peace last year during the country's first democratic elections in more than four decades.

The polls were applauded by international observers and saw only isolated outbreaks of violence. President Joseph Kabila was sworn in on December. 6, vowing to tackle violence in the mineral-rich, former Belgian colony at the heart of Africa.

But Juliette Prodham, head of Oxfam in Congo, said the United Nations must maintain its peacekeeping commitment or risk a reversal of democratic gains.

''The DRC is at a critical point. December's elections were a success, but the new government institutions are fragile,'' she said in a statement. ''Without the continuing support of the UN peacekeepers there is a risk that DRC could slide back into conflict and chaos.'' The war killed an estimated 4 million Congolese, mainly through disease and hunger, making it the most deadly conflict since World War Two.

Despite a 2003 peace accord that officially ended the conflict, grave human rights violations remain widespread, particularly in the volatile east, where Congo's army regularly clashes with armed militias.

The mandate of the UN mission in Congo is up for renewal by the Security Council in mid-February, when its members will decide whether to maintain troop strengths.

''While peacekeeping demands in Africa are on the rise, finding troops to protect vulnerable people from Somalia to Sudan should not come at the expense of security for long-suffering Congolese,'' Prodham said.

Ban is due to arrive in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, early on Saturday for a two-day visit. The trip to Congo will be the new secretary-general's first visit to a peacekeeping mission and to Africa since taking office this month.

Humanitarian workers estimated that more than 1,200 people die every in Congo from violence, hunger and disease, in what some call the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Ban's predecessor Kofi Annan, in his first official speech since leaving office last month, cited a decrease in conflict in Africa over the last decade but appealed for continued foreign support to help resolve the crises afflicting the world's poorest continent.

''About half the world's ... conflicts and three-quarters of UN peacekeepers are in Africa,'' the Nobel peace prize winner told dignatories in his native Ghana.

''Beyond Sudan and Somalia, less visible but no less deadly conflicts cry out for African resolve and international attention,'' he said. ''A continent in peace is what we all want but that remains an idea in search of realisation.'' REUTERS SI RK2145