EngRegional
DRC: What role has MONUSCO after deployment of regional force?
The UN
Security Council on December 20 extended the mandate of its stabilization mission
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) by one year. The move is questionable
given that the mission failed to restore security in eastern DRC despite having
around 12,400 troops and costing more than $1 billion, annually, for two decades.
Introduced
in November 1999, then as MONUC, the mission has brought no positive change. The
UN peacekeepers have consistently failed the Congolese population, with the
latter often protesting against the presence of the blue helmets. Armed groups
in DRC have increased from about five to more than 130, presently. Many of
these groups receive support from the Congolese army, with MONUSCO’s knowledge.
Following
the resurgence of the M23
rebels since late 2021, East African Regional Force (EARF) was established in
November to secure the city of Goma – which is also the Force’s headquarters –
from rebels as they await the completion of the Nairobi and Luanda peace
processes.
On
the ground, the regional force is supposed to take over roles of MONUSCO, in an
ambitious program by EAC leaders to bring peace to eastern DRC. The Congolese have
been protesting against the UN mission. They want it to to leave their country because
its collaboration with their national army failed to stop the M23 rebels from
advancing. The mission’s failures are not only in Rutshuru territory controlled
by the M23, but also in Beni territory, North Kivu, and in southern Ituri where
the ADF terrorist group operates.
The recently
leaked report of the UN Group of experts revealed that since April, ADF attacks
resulted in the death of at least 370 civilians, abductions of at least 374,
including a significant number of children. This terrorist group looted and
burned hundreds of houses, destroyed and looted health centers, mainly in an
effort to obtain medical supplies.
As
noted, ADF continued to conduct operations in the southeast, in Bashu
chefferie, reaching Lubero territory with increased activity in and around
Butembo , including two IED attacks and
a prison break that resulted in the massive recruitment of some hundreds of detainees
as intended.
“The
assailants looted and set afire two health centers, four pharmacies, several
civilian houses and shops. A medical worker and several patients were burnt
alive in a hospital,” reads the experts’ report, in part.
In
October, ADF attacked different villages in Irumu territory killing dozens of
civilians including women and children. Villagers were abducted and at least 36
houses burnt. The same month saw ADF attacking Maboya in Beni territory,
killing at least seven civilians, including three women, and abducting more
than a dozen civilians who were forced to carry loot.
Human
Rights Watch in October reported that FDLR fighters killed hundreds of
civilians over the years, at times hacking them to death with machetes or hoes,
or burning them to death in their homes. The genocidal militia from Rwanda also
committed countless rapes and other acts of sexual violence in eastern DRC but
MONUSCO has continously failed, or refused, to put an end to the militia’s
atrocities.
The FDLR
is widely and openly spreading genocide ideology in DRC, which has escalated
the ongoing hate speech and violence against Rwandophone Congolese. It is
specifically behind the looming threat of genocide against Congolese Tutsi. The
UN mission knows all this but keeps silent.
The question now is; what is MONUSCO really doing in DRC, when it never met any of its mandate obligations? Why extend its stay in the region?
Having
done nothing within more than two decades in DRC, the Mission will still do
nothing positive whether its stay is extended a hundred more years.
