A Step Toward Peace in Eastern Congo?
For civilians wracked by waves of violence in eastern Congo, a peace agreement is only a meaningful event if it leads to improvements in their daily lives. In that regard, the verdict is still very much out on the latest agreement—a deal reached last Monday between the Congolese government and the CNDP rebels formerly led by deposed warlord Laurent Nkunda. U.N. Special Envoy Olusegun Obasanjo and Great Lakes region envoy Benjamin Mkapa helped to finalize the deal, though it is still very much an agreement on principles moving forward. If anything is to be learned from the last peace agreement ...
No Lesser Evil?
Goma, North Kivu province, DR Congo—Last week, on February 25, a large and self-congratulatory ceremony was held in the provincial capital of Goma to mark the end of the Congo-Rwanda joint military operation against the Forces démocratic pour la libération du Rwanda, or FDLR, the Rwandan Hutu rebel group led by former génocidaires, and the departure of the Rwandan Defense Forces, or RDF, at least 4,000 of whom had entered eastern Congo about a month earlier. The joint offensive was hailed as a success and as a powerful symbol of a new spirit of collaboration between the countries of Congo ...
Good News or a Mirage from the Eastern DRC?: Repatriation Classification
Finally, there appears to be some good news coming out of eastern Congo, to balance a steady stream of horror stories. The numbers of ex-FDLR combatants and their dependents that have presented themselves to disarmament and repatriation centers has sharply increased in the three weeks since the announcement and commencement of the Rwanda-Congo joint military operation against the FDLR. As of yesterday, a total of 209 ex-combatants and 338 dependents have returned to Rwanda in 2009, aided by the U.N. Mission in Congo, or MONUC’s Disarmament, Demobilization, Repatriation, Reintegration, and Resettlement program (also known as DDRRR). The largest repatriation in ...
Congo and Rwanda to Accountability: Drop Dead
When I first met dissident General Laurent Nkunda, Chairman of the National Congress for the Defense of People, or CNDP, in February 2008, I was also introduced to his Chief of Staff, Bosco Ntaganda. Large and tall with searing hazel eyes and wearing a red beret, Ntaganda talked to me for several minutes. He asked me about my nationality, my religious background and my age. I answered his questions while nodding and smiling, but my stomach was churning and my brain was racing. At that time, Bosco Ntaganda had a sealed International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes he ...
Beyond Crisis Management in Eastern Congo (Strategy Paper)
The beleaguered people of North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo are justifiably angry. Despite the international community’s $500 million investment in 2006 elections and the world’s largest United Nations peacekeeping mission (costing more than $1 billion per year), the current round of fighting is the most destructive since 2005 and the latest chapter in more than 12 years of near continuous warfare ...
Past Due: Remove the FDLR from Eastern Congo (Strategy Paper)
The world has had 14 years to take action against the perpetrators of the genocide and those who now terrorize eastern Congo in their name, but the international response remains sorely inadequate. Absent an international action plan to finally remove this scourge, eastern Congo will continue to suffer ...
Getting Serious about Ending Conflict and Sexual Violence in Congo (Strategy Paper)
U.S.-led efforts in recent weeks to end the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo—the epicenter of the deadliest war since World War II with 5.4 million dead and counting—have yielded a ceasefire, but the conflict is not over. The international community must follow through on recent progress with a comprehensive peace strategy for eastern Congo ...