General
Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, commander with the UN peacekeeping
brigade in the country, said the unarmed drone would be airborne by
the last week of November.

"The
initial base to operate the aerial vehicle will be in Goma, and for
five months we are going to increase the equipment," he said.

The
brigade hopes to have surveillance 24 hours a day by "March or
April", he added.

The
United Nations said in August it had ordered its first surveillance
drones from an Italian company to patrol the volatile eastern region,
centred around the flashpoint city of Goma.

The
drones' target will be the activities of the M23 movement, founded by
former Tutsi rebels who were incorporated into the Congolese army
under a 2009 peace deal.

Complaining
the deal was never fully implemented, they mutinied in April 2012,
turning their guns on their former comrades.

If
the trial is successful in the DRC, where the drones will also
monitor the borders with Rwanda and Uganda, they could also be used
in South Sudan, Ivory Coast and in other UN missions.

The
announcement came as the chief of the UN's peacekeeping force in the
DRC, which has the unprecedented right to use deadly force against
rebels groups in the country, said he had been made aware of a
"disturbing" increase in manpower among the group.

"We
have reports of the recruitment by force of young people in Rwanda,"
Martin Kobler said, potentially destined to join the rebels currently
terrorising the Congolese population.

The
UN accuses Rwanda of backing the M23 rebels in eastern DRC, a charge
the country has adamantly denied.

Neighbouring
Rwanda was handed American sanctions last week for allegedly backing
ethnic-Tutsi Congolese rebels who recruit child soldiers.

Kobler
said he also had "irrefutable proof" that M23 rebels were
acquiring more military equipment.