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
