patheur

Congo wants UN peacekeepers to leave. But the endless war over minerals is complicating that.

Sakege October 30, 2024

Sam Mednick and Ruth Alonga
| Associated Press

Goma, Congo — The end of one of the world’s deadliest and yet bleakest wars is as difficult to predict as the end of the massive peacekeeping force meant to contain it.

Congo desperately wants stability in its mineral-rich east, of intense interest to the global economy. But political friction means the government wants the long-standing United Nations peacekeeping force to withdraw.

That would leave the vast region, overrun by dozens of armed groups, including one affiliated with the Islamic State organization, with even less defense for millions of displaced civilians. But frustration with the peacekeepers has become so great that many Congolese also want them gone.

The Associated Press witnessed the dilemma during a rare visit and night patrol with the U.N. force now known as MONUSCO, which entered Congo more than two decades ago and has 14,000 peacekeepers on the ground.

It patrols a landscape that feels remote from the authority of Congo’s government, with its dirt roads turned to slippery mud in heavy rains and residents long accustomed to feeling that, in terms of security, they are alone. Some of the armed groups in the region are self-defense collectives.

During a visit to a frontline town, Sake, about 14 miles (24 kilometers) from the regional center of Goma, the AP spoke with militia members trying to defend the population from a resurgent group, the M23, and its sniper fire from the surrounding hills. .

The M23 has the support of neighboring Rwanda, whose government denies this. The involvement of better-equipped Rwandan forces, of which UN experts estimate there are up to 4,000 of them in the Congo, has led to talk of war by the Congolese government.

A July truce brokered by the United States and Angola has reduced fighting between Rwandan and Congolese forces, but clashes between the M23 and other militias continue.

“We are fighting the enemy that is foreign to our country. They are not Congolese, but they want to take the Congo,” said one fighter, Amini Bauma.

Sake is one of the last main routes into Goma under government control, but fierce fighting this year forced most residents to flee, leaving boarded-up homes.

About 160 civilians and soldiers passed through the Sake military hospital over the summer, most with gunshot wounds, said Omar Kalamo, a nurse. In August, a bomb exploded behind the building, he said.

Some of those who fled are now returning and finding little safety elsewhere. Bitakuya Buhesha found his house destroyed. But he said he would rather face gunfire than live in displaced persons camps, which have been infiltrated by fighters.

“We have waited a long time and we don’t know if our army will win this war or if it will be the M23 rebels,” he said.

Many Congolese who once looked with hope to the UN peacekeeping force are now angry. Multiple protests, some of them violent, have targeted the force in recent years.

Last year, at Congo’s request, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to reduce the peacekeeping force and gradually transfer its security responsibilities to the Congolese government by December of this year.

But the rise in violence means the departure is now delayed.

Recently, peacekeepers in armored vehicles arrived at a small base in the misty hills outside Goma, its tents surrounded by barbed wire and sandbags. The troops were perched with a machine gun pointed in the direction of the rebels.

In recent months, clashes between the Congolese army and M23 have occurred within a kilometer and a half of the base.

The UN force is trying to find new ways to repel the rebels. Last year, it established new bases between the front lines and around 600,000 displaced people who took refuge around Goma. He is training Congolese soldiers in the hope they can fill the security vacuum once he leaves.

“If the belligerent armed groups had advanced and attacked civilians, MONUSCO would have changed its posture from purely defensive operations to offensive operations,” said UN Central Sector Commander for North Kivu Province, Brigadier General Ranjan Mahajan.

MONUSCO described the security challenges as “multiple and multifaceted” and said only one of its brigades is tasked with going on the offensive. This affects a single area, Beni, where deadly attacks have been especially frequent. The UN mission is otherwise defensive, working alongside Congolese forces and others.

But some Congolese, who believe the U.N. force is not aggressive enough, said any new efforts to protect them are futile.

“You can see that MONUSCO is there, but that is only in name… People are dying, but they do nothing,” said Maombie Aline, a displaced person in Goma.

And yet, the international community has warned that the withdrawal of the UN force would leave a security vacuum. More than 80% of Congo’s 7 million displaced people live in UN-protected areas, according to the African Center for Strategic Studies.

Last month, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the withdrawal of peacekeepers from South Kivu province in June left critical gaps and that the Security Council should not authorize further withdrawals. until there is a plan to mitigate them. The United States is the main financial support of the force.

Congo’s Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya said there would be a new timetable for MONUSCO’s departure, but gave no details. He said a joint team of government and UN officials was assessing the situation.

The streets of Goma are full of armed men, local and foreign. In addition to the UN force and an unknown number of Congolese forces, there are around 1,000 foreign mercenaries, a coalition of local militias and a southern African regional force. A recently deployed East African force was expelled amid criticism of its ineffectiveness.

“It’s a military jungle,” said Onesphore Sematumba, a Congolese researcher with the International Crisis Group. “There are many actors, but each one has their own agenda… they can’t make a difference because they are divided.”

Global interest in minerals from eastern Congo is one reason it is so difficult to contain the violence, experts said.

Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and smartphones. It also has important reserves of gold, diamonds, copper and cobalt.

In May, M23 fighters seized the town of Rubaya, which contains deposits of tantalum (used in electronics, including Apple devices) and mined for coltan. The area is estimated to supply more than 15% of global tantalum production and now generates about $300,000 a month for the M23, said Bintou Keita, head of the U.N. mission in Congo.

UN experts said in June that some of Rubaya’s minerals had been smuggled across the border into Rwanda.

Rwanda is selling minerals from eastern Congo and passing them off as conflict-free, said Darren Davids, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit; accusations documented by both UN experts and the United States.

Davids said the international community has been hesitant to meaningfully call on Rwanda to stop the fighting because it has become a reliable trading partner for the West as competition for minerals grows.

Meanwhile, Rwandan-backed rebels are accused of obstructing and threatening the UN mission so it can seize more territory, and are expected to benefit from its departure.

The Rwandan government and M23 did not respond to requests for comment.