Congo-Kinshasa: Intervention Brigade - End Game in the Congo?

Lansana Gberie, AllAfrica


To the outsider at least, the immediate problem with the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)--a perennial vortex of instability, massive human rights violations and wars both petty and large--is that it defies comprehension. The armed militia factions, opportunistic and often wholly predatory, are many. There are at least 10 such groups in the eastern part of the country alone, which for several years now has been the epicenter of the bloodshed and chaos.

The recent approval by the UN Security Council of two extraordinary measures to deal with the situation in that country--the use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to provide reconnaissance of militia activity, and the deployment of an intervention brigade to take offensive measures against the militia groups--is being hailed by most observers as a potential turning point in the country's recent unhappy history. Though the UN has been careful to present the measures as purely temporary and confined to the DRC, they do indeed constitute a turning point in UN peace missions. Their success--if they do succeed--will undoubtedly lead to their being hailed as "best practice," and radically change the hopeless trajectory of the Congo.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the measures as a "comprehensive approach aimed at addressing the root causes of instability in the eastern DRC and the Great Lakes region." But optimism has necessarily to be tempered, analysts believe.

The 24 February 2013 "Framework for Peace, Security and Cooperation for the DRC and the Region," which provides the basis for the intervention brigade, does indeed offer a comprehensive approach to the problem. The framework, which the African Union assisted to put together, was signed in Ethiopia by leaders from the DRC, Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, in the presence of Mr. Ban, who acted as one of the guarantors. The framework speaks of the suffering in the country engendered by "recurring cycles of conflict and persistent violence by armed groups, both Congolese and foreign."

The hills are alive again

The Economist

AFTER a six month hiatus, fighting returned to the hills above Goma, eastern Congo’s aid and trading hub, as rebels clashed with the Congolese army under the watchful eye of the UN’s blue-helmeted peacekeepers. It took the visit, on May 23rd of Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, for both sides to agree to a ceasefire. Mr Ban arrived in a bid to bolster regional peace efforts and was met by demonstrators who lined the lakeside city’s streets of crumbling volcanic rock.

Many of them carried bed sheets daubed with messages such as “No more war”. Beth Mapendo, a women’s activist standing outside the Heal Africa hospital, which treats victims of sexual violence, wanted to know when the UN’s vaunted “Intervention Brigade” would arrive. “We are tired of war, they need to come,” she said.

The new 3,000-strong force, which will join the existing 17,000 peacekeepers in Congo, boasts a tough new mandate from the Security Council, attack helicopters and surveillance drones. Mr Ban cautioned that it would make a real difference, but would be no panacea to the conflict.

Rwanda is key to peace in eastern Congo: Ban

Press TV

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says Rwanda is the key to ensuring peace and stability in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ban made the remarks in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Friday, a day after he started a visit to the Great Lakes region of Africa to promote a new deal to end the long-running conflict in mineral-rich eastern Congo, which shares a border with Rwanda.

In February, 11 African countries signed a UN-mediated peace agreement to end the crisis in the east of the DRC, which led to the establishment of a special brigade of UN peacekeepers with a mandate to attack rebel groups.

That deal "is the best chance for peace in many years," Ban told reporters in Kigali.

UN warns DR Congo rebels it will intervene

Daniel Howden
The Independent

The United Nations Secretary General has warned armed rebels in Eastern Congo that the organisation's new “intervention brigade” would prevent any repeat of the fighting which has driven thousands of refugees out of camps this week. In a visit to the embattled lakeside city of Goma, Ban Ki-moon said the 3,000-strong force which has begun deployment will “enforce the peace”.

Fighting between Congolese government forces and the M23 rebel group has reached the outskirts of the eastern trading hub, putting Mr Ban's visit in jeopardy. The UN and the Congolese government suffered a major reverse in November when the rebels, who are accused of being backed by neighbouring Rwanda, overran the largest city in the east of the country.