Leavenworth Strategist

Biggest peacekeeping force at crossroads in Congo

By MICHELLE FAUL (AP) – May 10, 2010

MBANDAKA, Congo — More than a decade and billions of dollars after U.N. peacekeepers deployed to Congo during a civil war, President Joseph Kabila wants them out.

The 20,000 peacekeepers tasked with guarding a country the size of Western Europe have been unable to protect civilians from a variety of rebel groups who kidnap children, rape women and decapitate enemies. Some of the peacekeepers themselves are even accused of sexual abuse, gold trading and corruption.

The United Nations isn't signing off on a date for leaving but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recommended they start with up to 2,000 troops leaving peaceful areas by June 30, which marks the 50th anniversary of Congo's independence from Belgium. Officials had planned to start in Equateur — a relatively peaceful corner of the country until a conflict erupted six months ago. Last month, more than 100 insurgents there overwhelmed a handful of U.N. peacekeepers guarding an airport.

Congolese officials say it was the latest evidence of the U.N. mission's failure to protect civilians...

UN troops unlikely to pull out from Congo

(Deutsche Welle)  Next month, France is due to present a draft of a new resolution on the UN mandate for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the UN Security Council. 

Many observers are already asking how the recent violence in Mbandaka in the northwestern province of Equateur, where rebels seized an airport and killed 13 people, will affect the future of the UN's involvement. With more than 20,000 troops, the UN mission (MONUC) is the largest and most expensive on the planet...

UN plans to end DR Congo peacekeeping mission

(BBC) The UN has begun talks with Democratic Republic of Congo on withdrawing its peacekeeping mission - the biggest UN operation in the world.

UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said his officials would take a month to assess how the pullout of 20,500 personnel could be carried out.

The current mandate of the mission, known as Monuc, expires in May.

UN troops have a mixed record in DR Congo, with accusations of sex abuse, gold smuggling and running from rebels...

UN Extends Mandate of DRCongo Peacekeepers

(AFP) – Dec 23, 2009

UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council extended Wednesday the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo by five months and tasked it with better protecting civilians.

The 15-member body voted unanimously on Resolution 1906, which keeps MONUC's strength at its current level, 21,000 troops and police, and envisages a further year-long extension of the UN mandate from May 31.

The French-drafted text postponed any decision on when to begin withdrawing the force, which has been deployed in Congo for the past 10 years, and asked UN chief Ban Ki-moon to conduct a strategic review of the situation by April 1.

It set MONUC three main tasks: ensuring the effective protection of civilians, as well as humanitarian and UN personnel; disarming, demobilizing and reintegrating foreign and Congolese armed groups; and supporting government efforts to improve security.

UN ponders future of Congo mission

(FT) By Harvey Morris in Washington

The United Nations is being forced into a drastic reappraisal of its 10-year military presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo where conflict, displacement, disease and hunger continue to undermine the peace its forces were sent there to keep.

By the end of this year, and most likely this week, the Security Council will meet to extend the mandate of the force, known as Monuc, its French acronym, by just five months instead of the usual 12.

A decade after the UN dispatched a few dozen military observers to monitor a ceasefire in Congo's civil war, Monuc has 19,000 uniformed personnel on the ground trying to help the government of Joseph Kabila, president, establish security amid a plethora of internal conflicts.

In the past year, the peacekeepers have been battered from various sides, castigated by human rights groups that claimed they turned a blind eye to the crimes of allies in government forces and accused of passivity in their mission of protecting civilians.

UN Security Council renews MONUC mandate

(Deutsche Welle) The United Nations Security Council has renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The French-drafted resolution extends the MONUC mission for a period of one year, and authorises it to act independently against rebel armed groups threatening civilians or humanitarian and UN personnel. Recent fighting between government troops and rebel forces led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda has displaced more than a quarter of a million people in North Kivu province in the east of the DRC. Around 6,000 MONUC's 22,000 troops are deployed in North Kivu. The UN mission has been widely criticised for its inability to stop the latest fighting, which broke out last August.   

EU divided on sending troops to Congo

BRUSSELS, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- European Union officials are divided over sending peacekeepers to the eastern Congo to help back U.N. peacekeepers.

The European Union's top foreign policy official, Javier Solana, will meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York Monday, The Sunday Times of London reported.

The peacekeepers are working to stop atrocities being committed in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At their meeting last week, European leaders declined to send a peacekeeping force and humanitarian aid to the former Belgian colony.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht made a plea to his European colleagues to send an armed European Union force to North Kivu in eastern Congo. Only Sweden and Spain supported the initiative. Other nations said the 17,000-strong U.N. mission already on the ground was sufficient.

New U.N. Congo troops may take half year to deploy: Ban

By Louis Charbonneau
Reuters
Friday, December 5, 2008; 8:47 PM

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - It may take up to half a year for the United Nations to deploy 3,000 new peacekeepers in eastern Congo, which is why it would help to have a bridging force from the European Union, the U.N. chief said on Friday.

"Practically speaking, it would take a long time -- the best scenario would be at least four months for United Nations additional peacekeeping forces who could be deployed," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters.

"It would take four to six months," he added.

UN agrees to send 3,100 more peacekeepers to Congo

By TODD PITMAN
GOMA, Congo (AP) — The U.N. Security Council agreed Thursday to send 3,100 more peacekeeping troops to Congo, while rebels said they remained committed to a pullback from the front lines despite an army attack.

There are currently 17,000 peacekeepers in the vast Central African nation — the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission — but they have been unable to stop the fighting.

UN Chief Says DRC Fighting is Spreading

By Derek Kilner (VOA), Nairobi, 07 November 2008

A regional summit on the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is under way in Nairobi. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an end to the fighting and warned that the conflict risked spilling over into the wider sub-region. Derek Kilner has more from Nairobi.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined heads of state from east and central Africa, as well as American and European diplomats, for a summit aimed at putting a halt to the recent fighting in eastern DRC between rebels led by Laurent Nkunda, and Congolese government forces. Mr. Ban called on leaders in the region to put pressure on Nkunda, who has launched a renewed offensive in August, despite signing an agreement with the government in January.

UN Reports 'Major Interventions' in DRC Fighting

VOA News (11 September 2008)-
The United Nations says its peacekeepers have intervened this week to stop rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo from advancing on local towns.

In a statement issued Thursday, the U.N. mission in the DRC says its forces stopped fighters of renegade General Laurent Nkunda from moving toward three different localities on Tuesday. It identified the towns as Kirotche and Kanyabayonga in North Kivu province and Minova in South Kivu province.