Berygtet rebelgruppe giver op overfor ny angrebsivrig FN-styrke og en mere disciplineret regeringshær, men der er over 40 militser i denne del af det uvejsomme kæmpeland, hvor kamp om naturrigdomme og politiske og etniske spændinger har kostet strømme af blod – og armod – i årtier.
NAIROBI, 8 November 2013 (IRIN): With the predominantly Tutsi rebel group M23 routed and vowing to disarm (lade sig afvæbne), attention is shifting to how to cement and extend peace across eastern DR Congo and ease the decades-long suffering and deprivation (afsavn) of millions of civilians.
Since 25 October, Congolese troops, backed by a new UN intervention brigade, have driven M23 fighters from their fortified strongholds in North Kivu Province, in a series of surprisingly successful operations.
The triumph has raised hopes of better times ahead for one of the world’s most turbulent regions.
Civilians in the area reportedly welcomed the M23’s defeat. A jubilant Martin Kobler, head of the UN Stabilization Mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO), was filmed shaking hands with smiling residents in “liberated” villages.
But observers caution that the military triumph is only a first step towards stability in a region long plagued by lawlessness and bad governance, beset by ethnic and political tensions, and awash with (som flyder med) weapons.
“The M23 is only one of many armed groups operating in the eastern DR Congo,” said Stephanie Wolters, an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, adding:
“There are many others that have long rendered the lives of the population in these parts a living nightmare, and that still need to be tackled politically and militarily.”
Military muscle
Experts say the reorganized FARDC, as DR Congo’s national army is known, and the newly offensive UN force must continue to work in tandem if the cycle of violence in eastern DR Congo is to be broken.
M23 is just the latest in a series of ethnic-Tutsi led militias that have operated in the hills close to the borders with Rwanda and Uganda. As many as 45 other rebel groups are currently operating across the region, where the DR Congo government has little control.
Militant groups have been accused of gross human rights violations, including executions, using rape as a weapon of war and conscripting children. Government forces have also been blamed for atrocities.
The violence and instability have hampered efforts to extend basic services, including health care, and to alleviate (afhjælpe) poverty.
The Congolse President Joseph Kabila shook up the command of the army after security forces put up no meaningful resistance as M23 gunmen seized Goma, the capital of North Kivu, in November last year.
Having humiliated the government and the UN, whose peacekeepers proved equally powerless, the rebels withdrew a few weeks later.
Military analyst Darren Olivier said the new FARDC commander in North Kivu has cracked down on ill-discipline, raised morale and turned his troops into a capable force. The troops were well prepared and supplied for their assault on the M23, he said.
“This has interesting implications for the potential of FARDC to eventually be able to maintain a monopoly of force in the eastern DR Congo,” Olivier wrote in the African Defense Review.
UN intervention
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/99088/analysis-extending-peace-in-drc-after-m23-s-demise
Se om de dødsensfarlige efterladenskaber fra årtiers konflikt på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/99087/concern-over-unexploded-ordnance-in-eastern-drc
