The Conflict
Anyone familiar with the Congo has heard the mind-numbing statistics: more than four million dead since 1998 (and many more before then), the most killed in any conflict since the Second World War. 1,200 people a day are still dying from conflict and conflict-related causes such as starvation and preventable disease.
The origins of the conflict lie across the border in Rwanda and the genocide committed there in 1994. Some of the extremist Hutu militias responsible crossed the border into what is now DR Congo. Rwanda, now run by the Tutsi force which ended the genocide, has twice invaded its much larger neighbour, saying it wants to wipe out the Hutu militias. General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the strongest rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has always claimed he was protecting Congolese Tutsis from attacks by the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda). He was arrested in January, 2009.
But all sides have also been accused of plundering eastern DR Congo’s rich mineral resources – gold, diamonds, tin and coltan, used in mobile phones. It is estimated that DR Congo has reserves for the 10% of the total Copper found in the crater of Earth. DR Congo is about the size of Western Europe, but with no road or rail links from one side of the country to the other, making it easy to take advantage of any disorder and plunder natural resources.
A five-year war – sometimes termed “Africa’s world war” as it drew in Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Rwanda – ended in 2003 with the formation of a transitional government and subsequent elections. But unrest has continued in the unruly east of the country and, as a result, some armed groups have refused to disarm or join the national army. Last year, an offensive by General Laurent Nkunda’s forces led to fears of another humanitarian disaster in the country, with some 250,000 people fleeing their homes.
They joined more than one million already displaced in the region. A vast nation in the heart of Africa, DR Congo is struggling to recover from a lengthy conflict in which up to five million people died, mostly through starvation and disease. The world’s largest UN peacekeeping force has been trying to help secure an end to that war, and prevent further outbreaks of fighting involving government troops, militia groups, rebel forces and now Rwandan troops.
Awareness
The country languished as the second worst on the list of failed states until last year after the war in Iraq. The larger war that was fought in Congo included eight countries; regional fighting and violence still continue and instability, impunity and inhumanity are rampant. There are some parts of the country where two out of every three women have been raped.
Children are still widely used as soldiers if they are boys, and as “wives” to militia soldiers if they are girls. The state exerts little authority over much of the eastern part of the country — it is controlled by at least 22 known armed groups. Bands of militia groups roam freely and each answer only to their own respective leader, living off the population and offering as payment the “Congolese credit card” — the AK-47.
Because these travesties have happened in relative obscurity — for example, 16 times as many people have died in Congo as have in the terrible ongoing genocide in Darfur, yet far more has been heard about Western Sudan than Central Africa — one goal here is to simply raise awareness. The hope being that a spotlight’s glare might help in a place where too much suffering has happened in the dark and also help those who are already hard at work trying to help themselves and their country.
Realization
The UN has been taking control of several towns in the region. The UN Security Council has voted to increase its 17,000-strong force by another 3,000. But diplomats admit they do not know where the troops will come from, or when they will be sent. There are currently some 5,500 peacekeepers in North Kivu, where the recent fighting has been taken place, including some 1,000 stationed in the provincial capital, Goma.
There have been calls for the mandate to be made stronger. However, the force operates under a Chapter Seven mandate, the most robust available for a peacekeeping operation – allowing it to protect the civilian population and themselves. There are also calls for Europe to send in an elite force, as France did when it lead a European Union mission to Ituri, further north of Goma, to stop a separate conflict a few years ago.
Manifestation
The humanitarian costs of the violence have been catastrophic. Over 300,000 have been newly displaced since fighting resumed and the Congolese army has been implicated in looting, rapes and killings in and around Goma as troops abandoned their positions. The UN peacekeeping force MONUC, though 17,000-strong and the biggest of all UN missions, has shown itself unprepared and unable to respond to the unfolding crisis and fulfill its mandate to protect civilians.
As violence continues the risks of a further escalation of the conflict are high. After several unsuccessful efforts to impose a military solution to rebel activity in Congo’s east, the international community must now apply heavy pressure on Kinshasa and Kigali to find a comprehensive political approach that will give momentum to both the Amani and Nairobi processes. Renewed commitment is essential to prevent even more devastating humanitarian consequences.
Resolution to the Current Crisis
To rebuild the state and augment its authority, the government must strengthen democracy or risk being paralysed by recurrent unrest, structural impotence and renewed instability in ever more parts of the country. Only a change of governance can provide the legitimacy and capacity to raise the revenues necessary to distribute peace dividends to all sectors of society.
The government still lacks the capacity to control the national territory. The main problems are well known: ill-disciplined, ill-equipped and often abusive security forces, continuing control by militias of large areas of the East and the risk of civil unrest and repressive violence in the West, where there is little government authority. The problems are closely intertwined: the weakness and partisanship of the security forces fuel popular resentment and allow militias to prosper. Creating a national, apolitical army out of the various armed groups and competent police able to handle urban disorder peacefully and provide genuine security is central to consolidating stability.
Donors must stay engaged, linking aid (over half the budget) to a political framework for a new partnership with Congo’s institutions to deal with peace building priorities.
To press the government to improve management of natural resources, including by cancelling illegal contracts, and consider creation of a permanent watchdog for natural resource management.
After Effects of the Conflict Situation
Aid workers are extremely worried about tens of thousands of people in the area. All sides are accused of carrying out horrific atrocities against civilians, in particular mass rape. Aid is now getting through to those who fled last year’s fighting between militia and the army. A new wave of conflict, targeting the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), could lead to another humanitarian disaster.
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