U.N. Refugees Mission in CONGO

COUNTRY OPERATIONS PROFILE RD CONGO :

The Second Congo War, also known as Africa’s World War and the Great War of Africa, began in August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly called Zaire), and officially ended in July 2003 when the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo took power (though hostilities continue to this day). The largest war in modern African history, it directly involved eight African nations, as well as about 25 armed groups. By 2008 the war and its aftermath had killed 5.4 million people, mostly from disease and starvation, making the Second Congo War the deadliest conflict worldwide since World War II. Millions more were displaced from their homes or sought asylum in neighboring countries.

Despite a formal end to the war in July 2003 and an agreement by the former belligerents to create a government of national unity, 1,000 people died daily in 2004 from easily preventable cases of malnutrition and disease.

 

- UNAIDS, 2004 Report on the global AIDS epidemic;
- United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) DRC;
- UNFPA, Country Profiles for Population and Reproductive Health, Policy Developments and Indicators 2005;
- World Bank, World Development Indicators;
- WHO, World Health Report 2005.

Sources:

The United Nations Security Council established MONUC to facilitate the implementation of the Lusaka Accord signed in 1999. With a budget exceeding one billion dollars, it is the largest and most expensive mission in the Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO).

MONUC’s mandate can be broken down into four phases: Phase one involved forcibly implementing the ceasefire agreement. Phase two involved its monitoring, and the reporting of any violations through the proper channels. The third phase, still underway, centers on the DDRRR (disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration) process. Phase four, also in progress, includes facilitating the transition towards the organization of credible elections.

MONUC is placed under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Its mandate authorizes it to use all means deemed necessary, within the limits of its capacities and in the areas of deployment of its armed units, to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence; and to contribute to the improvement of the security conditions.

Film exploring the tasks and dificulties faced by Military Contingents working for peace in the D.R. Congo

November 2008 :UN aid packages have arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo almost two months after fresh fighting broke out.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammad Adow reports from the heart of DRC’s conflict where at least 50,000 people are believed to have fled from their hometowns because of increasing violence.

A ceasefire has allowed a U.N. aid convoy to make its first delivery of humanitarian aid in eastern Congo since fighting broke out in August. (Nov. 3)

 

October 27 TH 2008 Tens of thousands of civilians have abandoned their homes as peacekeepers attacked rebels in eastern Congo. Crowds vented outrage at what they claimed was a failure to protect them from advancing rebel forces.

July 2005
The major problem facing Africa is corruption and control of resources. In the DRC, the military is stealing minerals to sell to Western companies. At a remote mine in central DRC, workers with torches and pick axes hack at the ruddy earth. They are mining cassiterite, a mineral vital in the production of laptops and mobile phones.

But dispersed among the miners are Congolese Government troops — in plain clothes for the camera — literally forcing most workers to work at gunpoint. ‘The soldiers always steal everything. They even come to shoot people down the mineshafts,’ complains Regina Maponda.

Western greed for cassiterite is fuelling the boom — at an airfield near the mine, soldiers jealously guard their loot as it makes it way to Japan and the West. Conflict mining is a curse, and it is difficult to see what the G8 leaders can do.

CONGO 2004

Some pictures and movies from my time as a UN peackepper in Congo 2004.

Briefing on MONUC’s Military component.