Why did MONUSCO (The United
Nations Organization
Stabilisation Mission in the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo) fail?
Alexander Osintsev
MONUSCO, an acronym based on its French name (Mission de l'Organisation des Nations unies
pour la stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo) was the United Nations’
peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it was one of the largest and
most expensive in the history of the United Nations, with roughly 8.7 billion dollars in expenditures
since 1999; with the contribution of more than 30 nations; and more than 20,000 peacekeeping
troops. The two main priorities of MONUSCO were: addressing the tense political and electoral
situation, and protecting the civilians. But despite all the efforts put into the mission, the United
Nations had little impact on the ongoing problems in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Why?
I think that the United Nations peacekeeping troops (also known as the ‘blue helmets’) are
ineffective and indifferent about their goals as peacekeeping troops in an area of conflict. Many
cases have demonstrated the inefficiency of the United Nations peacekeepers, and by some
news sources, they were even described as “chaotic and ineffective”1 . Reports regarding the M23
rebellion committing war crimes and violence against civilians started surfacing, and it was proven
that the peacekeeping troops were doing little to nothing in order to stop them. One of the
numerous cases proving the inefficiency of UN peacekeepers was the violence outbreak in Bangui
on September 26, 2015, where 2,660 UN police and military personnel were present, but despite
the numbers of peacekeeping troops available, the forces didn’t manage to adequately contain
the violence that erupted during the event. And according to witnesses, throughout the next two
days of the conflict, the troops did not intervene with the key areas of conflict and didn’t
demonstrate any interest in taking action. The violence outbreak resulted in at least 41 civilians
killed, and at least 17 injured. All of this happened due to the poor preparation of the United
Nations peacekeeping troops and proves their inefficiency. Although the operations in Congo
didn’t have much impact, the UN peacekeepers successfully ended the operations in Liberia and
in Cote d’Ivoire, which enabled the United Nations to withdraw their troops. However, some
operations work less well, maybe not due to the inefficiency of the peacekeeping troops, but due
to inconveniences that cause the operations to have less impact, which leads me to my next
point.
More of the shortcomings met by the peacekeeping troops included the fact that the troops were
under-equipped, poorly prepared, lacked soldiers, or weren’t allowed to do much due to their
limitations as peacekeeping troops. The UN ‘blue helmets’ have a certain policy they must follow
(Principles of Peacekeeping), which could be one of the causes to the failure of certain missions
executed in the DRC. One senior within the MINUSCO operation said: “When there's gunfire, we
can only send the guys in armoured vehicles. But several of these are currently out of service.”2.
This is a perfect example of the troops following the principles of peacekeeping, and specifically,
1
Rebecca Hersher on npr.org
2
Tomi Oladipo on bbc.com
the ‘Non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate’, and also proves the
point I made on the troops being under-equipped and poorly prepared. Another factor that might
have contributed to the lack of impact the operations had, were the coordination problems
between different parts of the peacekeeping force. An example of this is when during the
previously mentioned days of violence in Bangui in September 2015, 450 blue helmets were left
unused during the opening days of violence, when the need for support was fundamental to
suppress the outbreak. This proves the point I made on the poor preparation of the troops and
shows a clear lack of strategic management in their operations. Another problem that comes with
any mission where soldiers are deployed abroad, is the time it takes for the troops to reach the
area of conflict from the moment of request of support. So, “When people wait on them to
intervene, they never come. And when they do, it is too late”3, says a 45-year-old man from
Bangui. And in my opinion, none of these shortcomings are justified, due to the yearly MONUSCO
budget being 1,1 billion dollars, which I think is more than enough to cover skilled staff, and
adequate equipment. With my point being made, I can say that it isn’t always necessarily the fault
of the troops, but the UN itself.
Another potential cause to the inefficiency of the missions, in my opinion, is the negative
approach Congolese civilians have to the UN blue helmets. There have been numerous anti-UN
protests in Congo, which makes the UN the problem it is trying to fight itself. This negative view
the civilians have on the peacekeepers was based on the multiple sex abuse cases the
peacekeepers are responsible for, and the protest violence that the peacekeepers conduct, with
one of the protests - anti-Kabila protest ending with 47 deaths, including women and children,
killed by the peacekeepers. This act was completely unlawful and unjustified and in fact, after the
outcomes of this protest, the United Nations forbid any acts of violence against protesters. Also,
the soldiers have abused women and children for food and clothing, however, in return, the UN
took very little action against the individual soldiers who have committed the crimes. I think that if
the Congolese civilians and the blue helmets had a better relation, there wouldn’t be any protests.
But again, the peacekeepers have behaved like savages towards the civilians, and in return, they
have no reason to treat the peacekeepers with respect.
Concluding, in my opinion, the UN peacekeepers have shown little effort in maintaining peace in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, and that’s why they failed. The operations had little impact for
reasons such as the under-equipment of the troops, lack of soldiers, behaviour of the troops, poor
preparation and lack of strategic skill. There aren’t any local or cultural reasons for which the blue
helmets could be performing in such a poor manner, and it is purely the fault of the
mismanagement carried out by the UN. The United Nations is expected to be doing a way better
job at maintaining peace in the Congolese conflicts, especially with a budget of 1,1 billion US
dollars.
Links to Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Since we are talking about a peacekeeping mission, there are many links we can make to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some of the articles that link to the Congolese crisis
include: Articles 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 which link to the rights of Congolese civilians, that however were
violated during the violence outbreaks by the UN peacekeepers, in acts of various forms of abuse.
3
Amnesty International on amnesty.org
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
M.H.A. Menodji
Global Policy Forum
https://www.globalpolicy.org/security-council/index-of-countries-on-the-security-council-agenda/
democratic-republic-of-congo/52244-problematic-peacekeeping-in-the-drc-from-monuc-tomonusco.html
February 4, 2013
Séverine Autesserre
Routledge
http://www.severineautesserre.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IPArtCongo.pdf
October 1, 2015
Daniel Donovan
Foreign Policy Association
https://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2012/10/12/un-forces-in-the-congo-are-having-little-impact/
October 12, 2012
Tomi Oladipo
BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38372614
January 5, 2017
Amnesty International
Amnesty International
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/02/car-strengthen-peacekeepers-to-preventrenewed-violence/
February 8, 2016
Séverine Autesserre
Foreign Affairs
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-12-11/crisis-peacekeeping?
utm_campaign=reg_conf_email&utm_medium=newsletters&utm_source=fa_registration
February, 2019
Nick Cumming-Bruce
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/world/africa/congo-un-protests-kabila.html
January 23, 2018
Krista Larson and Paisley Dodds
AP News
https://www.apnews.com/69e56ab46cab400f9f4b3753bd79c930
September 23, 2017
Sofia Christensen
Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-un/u-n-condemns-congos-unlawful-crackdown-onprotests-idUSKBN1GV1GH
March 19, 2018