Regional

Why UN Group of Experts devalued EAC regional force, praised failed MONUSCO

Author: Emma Mukasa

2023-06-29 05:16:00

While addressing journalists on April 17, two days before the end of the UN Group of Experts’ investigations, former EAC regional force Commander Maj Gen Jeff Nyagah gave a picture of how his troops’ peace and stability efforts in eastern DRC ensured a much needed ceasefire amongst warring parties for over one month.

Those efforts also brought about the withdrawal of M23 rebels from several areas including Karuba, Mushaki, Neenero, Kirolirwe, Kibirizi, Kitchanga, Rutshuru, Bunagana, Rumangabo and Kibumba.

The full deployment of EAC troops to the multinational sector in Masisi and Rutshuru territories in North Kivu province enhanced the protection of civilians and created necessary conditions for the reopening of Kitchanga-Kirolirwe-Sake-Goma and Bunagana-Rutshuru-Rumangabo-Goma main supply routes thereby enabling free movement of people and goods.

With just about six months of the EACRF presence in eastern DRC, the regional troops managed to do what had not been done by the hundreds of UN peacekeepers operating in the region.

Before their deployment, in November 2022, the situation between M23 rebels and FARDC forces was tense and there was no hope of a return to normalcy. Even though full peace is not yet reached, the regional force invested collective efforts in safeguarding the gains in restoring peace and stability in eastern DRC through peaceful ways.

However, the latest report of the UN Group of Experts devalued the regional force’s bold attempt to resolve the crisis.

The so-called UN Group of Experts referred to the M23 withdrawal ‘symbolic.’ The report also deliberately fails to mention the well-documented efforts by Kinshasa to frustrate the Nairobi and Luanda processes, as well as the good work of EACRF.

“Despite a symbolic handover by M23 to the East African Community Regional Force of Kibumba and Rumangabo towns on 23 December 2022 and 5 January 2023, respectively, M23 leaders and combatants remained present and operational in those towns and the surrounding areas,” reads part of the report, which sounds more like the Congolese government’s own report.

Lacking the annex that supposedly shows the evidence to corroborate the content, the report also claims that in January and February 2023, “the Group of Experts received evidence that M23 and RDF had moved troops along this axis, including through Rugari and Kibumba, to reinforce the western front towards Kitchanga and Sake,” adding that “such movements were not prevented by the Regional Force.”

It takes no genius to notice that the report rehashed Kinshasa’s narrative; accusing the EAC regional force of collaborating with the M23 because the former did not engage in offensive operations against the rebels as Kinshasa had expected.

The UNGoE did not even mention how Kinshasa constantly thwarted the Luanda and Nairobi peace initiatives prolonging the eastern DRC conflict.

Congolese authorities threatened to kick out EAC troops, the only force that tried to handle the eastern DRC conflict effectively.

Other than shielding Kinshasa, the latest UNGoE report praised MONUSCO for “the support it provided during the reporting period.” Most of the information contained in the report was obtained from the UN Mission’s sources.

The UNGoE hyped MONUSCO’s only usefulness – providing Kinshasa with intelligence – and failed to mention its blatant failure to restore peace in the country despite having over 12,000 troops and an annual budget of more than $1 billion.

MONUSCO was deployed to restore peace in the DRC by protecting civilians, facilitating safe electoral processes and fighting armed groups. It has been in the country for more than two decades and the opposite has happened. The number of armed groups has increased to more than 130. Local communities do not have a good relationship with the mission because it has failed to protect them. Ever since it was set up, in November 1999, the then MONUC – renamed MONUSCO in 2010 – has proved very useless.

Despite its constant ineptness, MONUSCO’s exit time remains unclear. And the UNGoE deliberately praised it for a reason. Analysts have pointed out how, every year, the UN peacekeeping mission’s term in DRC is up for renewal but nothing ever happens.

Clearly, the latest UN Group of Experts report was meant to alarm the Congolese public opinion - by announcing an imminent attack by Rwanda – to ensure the impotent UN mission’s mandate is renewed.

The authors of the report have a sinister agenda, far from contributing to the restoration of peace and stability in eastern DRC.