Tomorrow the UN Security Council will convene in New York once again to discuss the latest developments in the Eastern DRC and the mandate of Monusco in stabilizing the region.
The meeting, which follows the one that took place in March this year, as usual will come dressed in serious language, as though something new can be expected, but the truth is simple, Monusco has been in Congo for decades, swallowed close to 10 billion dollars, and delivered zero results. There is nothing more or special it can serve.
It is during Monusco’s presence that armed groups mushroomed from a handful to nearly 500. The very mission that was mandated to dismantle, demobilize, and reintegrate militias presided over their multiplication. DRC’s insecurity is not an accident, it has been cultivated under Monusco’s watch.
The most glaring example is the FDLR. This militia, composed of remnants of those who carried out the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, not only survived but thrived under Monusco’s mandate. They reorganized, rearmed, and at some time they were stronger than FARDC, Tshisekedi’s own army. They have continuously issued open threats against Rwanda, and Monusco remains deaf, mute, and blind.
Instead of results, what the world gets from Monusco are excuses. In the latest UNSC session, its boss, Bintu Keita, was busy whining about a shrinking budget. Smaller, she called it, as if 10 billion dollars had vanished into thin air with nothing to show.
Truth be told, Monusco’s failure in DRC is not about money. It is about incompetence and complicity to sustain their mission and fatten pockets of its bosses and commanders while Congolese continue to die like grasshoppers.
Rwanda’s position on Monusco remained the same, they are a bloated mission that fuels more conflict in the region to keep their paycheques, in fact, Olivier Nduhungirehe, the country’s top diplomat recently argued that the mission should either be dismantled or overhauled completely. Anything else is a waste of time and donor money.
Even the United States, under President Trump’s administration, If there is a mission that deserves Zero credits it is Monusco. It has done more harm than good. When FARDC and FDLR were cornered in Goma, Monusco shielded them inside its base. Later, it plotted to reintroduce them to fight M23, who had liberated the area. The plan collapsed, and the so-called “protected” forces were swiftly neutralized.
This is the reality Monusco doesn’t want to confront. It has become a shield for criminals instead of a mission for peace. It is not a peacekeeping force but a peace-postponing bureaucracy.
Tomorrow’s debate at the Security Council should not be about how best they can discharge their mandate, it should not be about cutting or increasing its budget, the only honest conversation left is whether to pull the plug altogether.
Monusco is not a mission. It is a billion-dollar monument to failure.
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