The Italian-made pilotless aircraft was launched at 12:01 pm (1001 GMT) from the airport in Goma, capital of North Kivu province, at a media event attended by the chief of UN peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous and several diplomats.
The UN mission in the DR Congo, MONUSCO, currently has two such drones. According to a military expert in the capital Kinshasa, both aircraft began trial flights on Sunday.
The drones, which are unarmed and exclusively equipped for reconnaissance flights, are intended to help the United Nations to watch over North Kivu, a mineral-rich province prey to dozens of armed movements, which MONUSCO troops have been ordered to neutralise, including by force.
The aircraft will also be used to survey the porous borders between North Kivu and Rwanda and Uganda, in a bid to prevent these countries from providing support to groups inside DR Congo.
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