Week 5

The office was closed on Thursday and Friday this week for an extended 4th of July weekend (you love to see it). However, a short week doesn’t mean a workless week, so I spent Monday through Wednesday doing some background research on the UN Peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). A majority of my preliminary research focused on providing a context/history of mass atrocities in the lead up to the creation of the Peacekeeping mission.

For another (brief) history lesson: The Democratic Republic of the Congo was formerly governed by King Leopold II of Belgium (1885-1908). Under his rule, the DRC suffered extreme exploitation and violence, and it's estimated that somewhere between 2 and 10 million people were killed. Leopold II’s rule ended with the establishment of the Belgian Congo, which continued to exist until the DRC's independence in 1960. Post-independence, the DRC faced political upheaval, ethnic tensions, and military mutinies, leading to UN intervention. A political coup resulted in a long period of authoritarian rule (1965-1997) that was marked by severe human rights abuses. Tensions were further fueled by the Rwandan Genocide's aftermath, which led to both Hutus and Tutsis finding refuge in the DRC. Tensions reached a boiling point and led to the First and Second Congo Wars - two conflicts that spanned across multiple African countries and involved multiple African actors. In the six months that the First Congo War lasted, an estimated 200,000 people were killed. The Second Congo War resulted in approximately 5.4 million deaths. Ultimately, both wars were characterized by a period of civilian death, starvation, SGBV, targeted ethnic attacks, and other severe human rights violations. Attempts at peace were made in the late 1990s, and the UN deployed a Peacekeeping mission (then called MONUC) to oversee the cessation of warfare. Despite this attempt at peace, conflicts continued to rage in certain areas of the country. The DRC continues to suffer violence at the hands of armed rebel groups and, at times, its own government.

The current mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) is based primarily in the North Kivu and Ituri regions. Just recently, the UN Peacekeeping Mission pulled out of South Kivu (at the request of Congolese political leaders). It'll be important in the upcoming months to keep an eye on how the government manages to take over the security situation. In the year leading up to the removal of UN troops from South Kivu, MONUSCO began a gradual withdrawal in the hopes of not creating a large power vacuum. UNPOL also provided training and technical support to internal security forces. If there's anything to report on the situation in a few weeks, I'll let you all know.