The massive UN peacekeeping effort in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has failed to deliver a knockout blow to Rwandan rebels while local insurgents have seized new territory under its nose, UN experts said yesterday.
Far from resolving the root causes of the violence, the presence of the world’s biggest peacekeeping mission has aggravated the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces, the report said.
“Military operations have … not succeeded in neutralizing the FDLR [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda], have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Kivus and have resulted in an expansion of CNDP [Congolese National Congress for the Defense of the People] military influence in the region.”
PHOTO: AFP
The DRC’s army, backed by the 25,000-strong UN force, launched an offensive against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda earlier this year as part of a deal to improve ties with Rwanda, its enemy during a 1998-2003 war.
In return for the DRC’s pledges to stamp out the Hutu rebels, some of whom helped orchestrate Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, Kigali arrested General Laurent Nkunda, whose CNDP insurgents were then integrated into the army.
While the UN Security Council has twice voted to continue peacekeeper support for the operations, rights groups and aid agencies have decried the displacement of more than 1 million villagers, thousands of rapes and hundreds of killings.
Despite the surrender of more than 1,200 of its estimated 6,000 to 8,000 fighters, the FDLR continues to replenish its ranks through the active recruitment of both Congolese and Rwandan Hutus, the group said.
The rebels benefit from support networks in Africa, Europe and North America, as well as financing from its control of the east’s lucrative tin deposits despite the army’s efforts to push them out of mining areas.
“The Group calculates that the FDLR could earn at least several hundred thousand dollars and up to a few million dollars a year from this trade,” said the report, which was scheduled to be discussed by the Security Council yesterday.
The most aggressive operations against the FDLR have been spearheaded by hastily integrated former CNDP units, some of which are under the command of General Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Officials from the DRC’s UN mission, known as MONUC, have denied Ntaganda’s involvement in the operations, which it is backing with logistical and operational support, including helicopters.
However, the group found that Ntaganda had ordered troop deployments, has established a parallel taxation scheme in CNDP-controlled areas taking in US$250,000 per month and has centralized control of hidden weapons caches.
“General Bosco Ntaganda was enforced by both Kinshasa and Kigali as the de facto military head of the CNDP, with specific instructions to manage and control former CNDP elements integrated in the [army],” the report said.
Under Ntaganda’s management, integrated CNDP units are accused by the group of experts of widespread abuses including killings, rape, torture, forced labor, looting and extortion.
“Ex-CNDP units have also forcibly displaced large numbers of civilians … in order to find grazing areas for cattle being brought in from Rwanda,” the report said.
As CNDP-controlled units have advanced into new territory, ethnically based Mai Mai militias, who claim to protect local villagers, have grown in numbers and allied themselves with the FDLR, forming a united front against the army operations.
CNDP commanders have reacted by murdering civilians they accuse of collaborating with the Mai Mai and FDLR.
Earlier this month, the UN suspended its support to army units it believed were responsible for killing about 60 civilians in operations against the Mai Mai.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS