Despite resurgence of conflict in eastern DRC, peacekeepers continue to protect civilians
New York, US (PANA) - As the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has intensified since January, the United Nations peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, is working to protect civilians, including in areas under the control of the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group in North Kivu province.
This is what the head of MONUSCO, Bintou Keita, explained to UN News, in an interview given the day before her presentation on the situation in this country to the members of the UN Security Council in New York.
The meeting between Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame last week in Doha, Qatar, during which they discussed a ceasefire, shows, according to her, "a positive image", since the two men had not met physically for a very long time.
The head of MONUSCO added that the UN mission has been involved in the mediation efforts led by Angola, providing its contribution in terms of "physical knowledge of the terrain" and that it stands ready to support "the observation of a real ceasefire" in the east of the country.
MONUSCO peacekeepers, who withdrew from South Kivu province in June 2024, are still deployed in North Kivu and Ituri.
Before the conflict escalated in January, MONUSCO and the Congolese government were continuing discussions on a "gradual and responsible disengagement" of the UN peacekeeping mission and were due to present to the Security Council by the end of March 2025 how this disengagement would be carried out in North Kivu and Ituri, based on lessons learned from the disengagement in South Kivu.
But with the M23 offensive, "the urgent need was to manage the crisis", explains Bintou Keita, which put discussions on disengagement on the back burner. "The Council will receive a letter from the Secretary-General who will admit that it was not possible, given current developments, to further refine the disengagement methodology," Ms. Keita tells us.
The escalation of the conflict in eastern DRC has not prevented peacekeepers from continuing to fulfill their mandate to protect civilians, despite the difficult environment in areas under M23 control in North Kivu.
Although its capacity to conduct patrols is limited, MONUSCO is hosting thousands of people who have come to seek refuge there at its bases, thus offering them physical protection.
"There are three ways to protect civilians. There are political commitments, there is physical security—physical protection through physical presence—and then there are the conditions that ensure that people feel comfortable," the UN envoy emphasized.
At its bases in Goma, MONUSCO offers protection to people who have come to seek refuge there. "Are they soldiers or are they civilians? From the moment they are in our bases, they are all considered non-combatants because they are unarmed and therefore they are civilians," she says. "Our role in protecting civilians is to respond to requests for individual protection. In the context of areas under M23 control, we have a strong demand from individuals and groups who want to come to our bases for protection."
"At the moment, protecting civilians is not about patrolling the environment, it's about being able to welcome those seeking refuge in MONUSCO bases," she adds.
MONUSCO is also working to advocate with the M23 and the Congo River Alliance for respect for human rights and humanitarian law, as well as with the Congolese government to improve the living conditions of people in displacement sites who have been asked to leave and return to their places of origin.
Regarding the impact of the freeze on US funding for humanitarian aid in the DRC, the UN envoy believes that it may be time to invent other models of humanitarian response, suggesting in particular that priority be given to local NGOs and associations.
She recalls that 70% of humanitarian aid funding in the DRC was dependent on American funding through the American agency USAID.
"Perhaps this is the time to ask ourselves how to operate in an environment where resources are rather declining and perhaps invent other models of humanitarian response," she says. "And in this context, I think that national non-governmental organizations, local associations, should be given priority because, regardless of the security situation, they remain on the ground and continue to have access to populations."
-0- PANA MA 29March2025
