UN Needs To Rethink Eastern Congo Peacekeeping Strategy

The UN peacekeeping mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must rework its operations if it hopes to better protect civilians in the country’s remote eastern areas, says UN deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Catherine Bragg. 

“I am particularly concerned that thousands of people live in fear of attack by armed groups, who kill, maim, rape, kidnap, loot and burn down houses.” she told reporters during a briefing on her most recent trip to the country. “Those who flee are in the most remote areas, often living in isolated communities. This remoteness makes them even more vulnerable as bringing aid is a logistic challenge.”

 Bragg says that although the security situation in the region has improved enough to allow for the return home of over 600 000 displaced people in South Kivu, large portions of the population continue to live at the mercy of foreign rebel groups like the Lord Resistance Army  (LRA) and other local militias.

 “In the Kivus, 1.2 million people remain displaced due to attacks and insecurity. These displacements are occurring in the more remote areas where access is difficult because of insecurity but also because there are few roads.” 

The UN’s Deputy Emergency Relief coordinator says the lack of access to certain communities in Eastern DRC has left over 30% of affected civilian population outside the reach of humanitarian agencies.

 “As humanitarians, there is not much we can do about armed groups and the LRA.  But we can take actions that will improve people’s plight.”

Bragg says one step the international community can take is to expand development initiatives such as road and school construction in affected remote areas and help the Congolese government strengthen its national military and police capacities to better address security issues brought on by militias. 

 The DRC is still recovering from a protracted civil war and ongoing regional micro-conflicts that have led to the death of over 4 million people since 1996, one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the past decades.

Rape with impunity a part of every day life in the Congo

On his visit to Goma, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated the UN's commitment to ending sexual violence throughout the country. At Heal Africa, a holistic center set up to provide psychological and medical healing to rape victims --some as young as two years of age, he spoke about the every day ills women in the country suffer.

Many women and young girls have suffered at the hands of Ugandan LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) and FDLR (Revolutionary Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) rebels who have fought over ownership of land thick with natural resources like gold and minerals. MONUC (The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) is dealing with these cases on a day by day basis as the increase of incidents citing brutal rape and other forms of sexual violence continue. TRNS sat down with Virginie Mumbre, a counselor at the Heal Africa center to find out the latest on these sex crimes.