UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was to arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday to attend celebrations of the 50th anniversary of its independence and for talks on fighting social ills, according to dpa. Ban said at UN headquarters on Monday before leaving for his third trip to Africa in one month that the continent can achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals "with the right investment in tools to create jobs and generate income." The eight goals in the programme adopted in 2000, which should be met by 2015, include reducing by three-quarters the number of extreme poor living on less than 1.25 dollars a day, reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and reducing maternal and infant mortality. Ban said that in Kinshasa he will express the international community's solidarity with the Congolese people. Congo has asked the large UN peacekeeping mission to leave the country next year and let it handle its own problems. Ban will then visit Gabon, where he said he will address the parliament, meet with civil society leaders and "highlight efforts that Gabon is taking to make real progress on the MDGs." The UN has said that progress on implementing the MDGs has been uneven across the world. The UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold a summit of world leaders in September to push for meeting the goals by the target date of 2015.
