31 May 2007: ISS Today: More Troops Sent to Reinforce UN Forces in Eastern DRC

31 May 2007: More Troops Sent to Reinforce UN Forces in Eastern DRC
MONUC News

 

Three additional companies have arrived in North-Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), to reinforce forces serving under the UN mission in DRC (MONUC), Commandant Gabriel de Brosses, mission spokesman, said Monday. While speaking on Top Congo, a private radio station, the spokesman said the objective of the deployment was to contain the security situation in North and South-Kivu as well as put pressure on the various armed groups operating in the area to disarm. According to de Brosses, MONUC has redeployed its security forces in the DRC by moving at least 20 percent additional troops in line with the magnitude of the security problems in North and South-Kivu. We took some of our reserve troops and deployed them in North- Kivu in order to resolve the security problems in North and South- Kivu. The three companies are already in place with their military hardware and will carry out their mandate in close collaboration with the North-Kivu brigade, the spokesman said. De Brosses said MONUC operational chiefs of staff will initiate further security measures in accordance with the needs of the two regions.

 

Commentary

 

In the course of the last few weeks the situation in the Eastern DRC has deteriorated with alarming rapidity. This development has been mirrored in a number of developments: an accelerated process of troop integration called mixage has collapsed; dissident General Laurent Nkunda has reinforced his position and re-emerged as a dangerous spoiler; the FARDC has been unable to prevent the depredations of the FDLR rebels; and MONUC’s Eastern Division has failed to intervene decisively to arrest the situation.

 

An attempt to accelerate the DDR and integration process and to mix Nkunda’s troops into brigades with FARDC forces in order to constitute units capable of dealing with the FDLR proved a dismal failure. Neither MONUC nor other international players in the DDR process were informed of this attempt to fast-track integration, and therefore refused to support it once it became public. It was soon clear that problems such as command and control, lack of equipment and logistical support would undermine operations against the FDLR, and local populations were also apprehensive about the effect these would have on their security. There were reports of renewed serious human rights violations in the areas where the Mixed Brigades were deployed: the Rutshuru and Masisi territories. Arbitrary executions and arrests, forced disappearances, torture, rape and looting were reported to MONUC and other humanitarian organizations, as combatants exacted reprisals against local populations for alleged collaboration with other parties to the conflict.

 

On 9 May General Nkunda threatened to withdraw his troops from the mixage process, sparking fears of renewed violence. An advisor to President Joseph Kabila lamented the "orchestrated failure of the mixing," remarking that Nkunda`s men had never intended to integrate into the army and that the former general continued to "exploit" ethnic issues.

 

Meanwhile, the Hutu-led Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) group active in eastern DRC accused Nkunda and Rwandan President Paul Kagame of trying to "set up a satellite state" in the Kivus. According to a foreign diplomat in the region requesting anonymity, "the situation appears irresolvable." "Nkunda had a maximum of 3,500 men before the (integration). He has provided 7,000 and says he has 2,000 more. It is clear that he has recruited from the hundreds of demobilised Rwandans," he explained, referring to military information.

 

Following the evident failure of the mixage process, the question is how to rescue the situation. The appointment of Brigadier-General Mayala, commander of the Ituri Military Region as the new military commander of the 8th Military Region(North Kivu) signals a move by the Kinshasa government that could either bring North Kivu to rebellion or result in the final disarmament of the FDLR. In essence, Kabila has placed a proven commander in North Kivu who is loyal to Kinshasa, in the event of a rebellion by Nkunda. Nkunda in the meantime has used the mixage process to establish his troops in strategic locations in North Kivu. They are currently positioned in Rutshuru, which is a strategic access point on the east side of Virunga National Park, and on the Masisi to Goma road.

 

The impact of the FARDC/Mixed Brigades/FDLR conflict has now spread to South Kivu, and on the night of 26 May, a small group of militiamen, purported to be with “FDLR/Rastas,” attacked the villages of Nyabuluze and Muhungu in the South Kivu Province, killing 18 civilians, among them women and children, and wounding 27. A dozen and a half people were also abducted in the same incident. Notes were left on the bodies of their victims, in which the attackers claimed that these atrocities were a reprisal for the operations led against them by FARDC, As the perpetrators attempted to raid Chihamba, a third village in the same area, a patrol of Pakistani UN peacekeepers opened fire, forcing them to flee into the nearby forests, and “thereby preventing another bloodbath.

 

Action needs to be taken and this must happen immediately.  A first step would be to appoint as soon as possible a General Officer Commanding for MONUC’s Eastern Division. Then, with the cooperation of the FARDC in North and South Kivu he should make an appreciation of the situation and decide on a plan of action. There are different options: one is to use the current MONUC and FARDC force levels and execute a two-phase approach by dealing first with Nkunda and then with the FDLR. The FDLR issue, however, must be addressed both politically and military. For this option MONUC’s Eastern Division needs a clear signal of intent from the General Officer Commanding to execute robust operations jointly with the FARDC against Nkunda. A second option is to reinforce MONUC with a highly mobile European Battle Group, similar to the operation in Ituri some time ago.

 

The question is whether the European Union would be willing to commit a battle group to such a robust peace enforcement operation. But, if the problem of Nkunda and the FDLR is not addressed soon, the Kivus will return to war, with dire consequences not only for the local population, but for the prospects of constructing a viable Congolese state.  

 

Henri Boshoff, Military Analyst, African Security Analysis Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)