United Nations Involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo

“On July 5, four M23 fighters gang-raped a 12-year-old girl as she went to fetch water in her village in Rutshuru. An M23 fighter who accosted an 18-year-old woman near Bunagana shot her in the leg on April 15 when she refused to have sex with him” (Boitiaux). The M23 Movement has affected the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo ever since its formation after Congolese President Joseph Kabila’s inability to fulfill a peace agreement. Because of the ongoing rebellion, the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo are no longer safe, and the United Nations has been asked to interfere to solve the problem.

So far, the intervention of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been a controversial issue, succeeding in subduing the rebel groups but failing to keep the civilians out of danger.

The U.N. mission has been effective in taking out the the rebel groups that had resulted from the March 23 Movement. According to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s information minister, the United Nations Mission in Congo has “reduced the number of rebel groups from 55 to about 20” (Clottey). The United Nations is wiping out the rebel groups one by one, thus seemingly eliminating the problem of atrocious human rights violations committed by them.

Despite all of the successes due to the United Nations peacekeeping mission, the citizens feel threatened by amassing violence. A protester against U.N. involvement makes a point when he states that the mission “is supposed to keep the peace… Why are they turning their guns on the people when we only want peace. We demand that [the U.N.] leave… immediately” (Kanyunyu). To solve the M23 problem, the United Nations soldiers are physically pointing their guns on the civilians and making them feel threatened, which is no better than what the rebels had been doing. Preceding the U.N. mission, only the rebels were harmful to civilians, but now there is double the danger. Not only are UN peacekeepers putting people in greater danger, they are also committing their own human rights abuses. The Globe and Mail reports that in early 2011, two sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo aged 14 and 15 were attacked, gang raped, and beaten by three United Nations soldiers who had been in Congo for the mission. The 15 year old was left pregnant and badly injured (Caplan). But this is just one example of the brutality that the United Nations has inflicted in the Democratic Republic. In fact, a military operation run by a U.N.-backed Congolese military to protect the civilians from these rebels has actually “caused more civilian casualties than damage to rebels, with more than 1,400 people deliberately killed over a nine-month period” (Taylor). As the situation continues to worsen, one would suspect that the U.N. would extend their aid positively, but instead they worsened the situation, causing grief among all.
On one hand, the United Nations has been useful in the reduction of rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but on the other hand, the civilians feel that they are being put into even more danger. The U.N. may have eliminated many of the M23 rebels who are accountable for human rights violations, but they have not eliminated the violations. Their involvement is at the heart of many disputes about the Congo, and the question remains- who will be able to truly eliminate this problem of mass rape and murder in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Works Cited

Boitiaux, Charlotte. "Africa - DR Congo: Who Are the Various Rebel Groups at War?" France 24. N.p., 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://www.france24.com/en/20120822-democratic-republic-congo-various-rebel-groups-war-rwanda-uganda/>.

Caplan, Gerald. "Peacekeepers Gone Wild: How Much More Abuse Will the UN Ignore in Congo?" The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc., 3 Aug. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/peacekeepers-gone-wild-how-much-more-abuse-will-the-un-ignore-in-congo/article4462151/>.

Clottey, Peter. "DRC Military Offensives Reduces Number of Armed Groups." VOA News. N.p., 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. <http://www.voanews.com/content/drc-military-offensives-reduces-number-of-armed-groups/1890655.html>.

"DR Congo: M23 Rebels Kill, Rape Civilians." Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, 22 July 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. <http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/22/dr-congo-m23-rebels-kill-rape-civilians>.

"Hundreds of M23 Rebels Escape Repatriation." Global Issues in Context. The Content Agents, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 8 Mar. 2015. <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=0f48ecee8b1fd7f446ffb51dd31f8b93&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=los42754&tabID=T004&docId=A393874479&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0>.

Kanyunyu, John, and Ohilipp Sandner. "Congo Protests against UN Peacekeepers | Africa | DW.DE | 23.10.2014." DW.DE. N.p., 23 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. <http://www.dw.de/congo-protests-against-un-peacekeepers/a-18016649>.

Musoni, Fabrice. "Understanding M23 and the Current Conflict in the DR Congo." End Genocide. United to End Genocide, 29 Nov. 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://endgenocide.org/understanding-m23-and-the-current-conflict-in-the-drc-congo/>.

Taylor, Adam. "UN-Backed Congo Troops Killed More Civilians Than Rebels, Says Human Rights Watch." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Mar. 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/14/un-backed-congo-troops-ki_n_391635.html>.