Regional
DRC crisis: UN no vehicle for any solution
United
Nations Secretary General António Guterres was quoted saying that in the end,
“it comes down to values [...] We want the world our children inherit to be
defined by the values enshrined in the UN Charter: peace, justice, respect,
human rights, tolerance and solidarity.”
But
this is not the case in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the UN’s peace
keeping mission has been present for 25 years now.
The UN
mission has failed the Congolese people. Armed groups increased to over 260
from five in 2000, leading to the death of thousands of Congolese, while
millions others are displaced internally and externally.
Established
in 2000 as the Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies en République
Démocratique du Congo (MONUC), their mandate was to protect civilians. In 2010,
the mission was renamed MONUSCO. Currently, 12,800 of the original 20,000
troops are still deployed and costs about $1 billion (€910 million) a year.
But
more than two decades later operating in volatile eastern DRC, the mission has
brought no positive change.
Besides
that, MONUSCO is leading and supporting offensive actions against the M23
alongside the FARDC, SADC, the FDLR genocidal militia, Wazalendo militia,
European mercenaries as well as the Burundian national defense forces (FDNB).
Since May 2024, UN troops, have been deployed in Beni territory to help FARDC
to cope with the M23 advance.
The
biggest concern is that the UN has been present since the beginning of the M23
conflicts in DRC, and is well aware of the root causes of the issues, but still
chooses to ignore them and turn a blind eye on the crisis.
The
blue helmets constantly failed the Kinyarwanda speaking community by fighting
against M23 rebels who are fighting against an existential threat. The rebels
are protecting the Congolese Tutsi from their government-led coalition, that
encourages their persecution, and ethnic cleansing.
For
the past decades, the UN idly watched as this community suffered. UN troops
intend to help annihilate a community they are supposed to be protecting.
The
sad events in DRC can be compared to the massacres of more than one million
Tutsi civilians in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994. These people died despite the
fact that a UN mission was posted there. After three decades, mass killings are
witnessed in DRC where another heavily funded UN mission is present.
Today,
the UN is well aware of the continued use of hate speech to incite violence
against Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese precisely the Tutsi community, the open
mobilization of militias like Wazalendo and FDLR, to arm themselves with
traditional weapons and target Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, yet, the
international chooses to turn a blind eye.
Under the UN mission’s watch, the security situation in DRC has only deteriorated. While MONUSCO could withdraw from DRC, it is safe to say that no one can expect any other tangible solution as they constantly failed the same population they were mandated to protect.