Many date back to the 1998-2003 Congolese civil war, fuelled by
Rwandan intervention, in which millions died, either in the conflict or
of hunger and disease.
As the battered pickup lurched down the road from Mount Nyiragongo, Lieutenant Bongani Mndebele took a closer look at its passengers, six men in faded camouflage fatigues with AK-47s over their shoulders.
“Government forces – I think,” the South African peace-keeper said. “It’s often hard to tell round here.”
In
the hills of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, along the border
with Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, Mndebele’s uncertainty can be
forgiven.
For years, the region, including the
slopes of Nyiragongo, Africa’s most active volcano, has been home to a
patchwork of rebel militias who have killed thousands and displaced
millions in their quest for control of timber, gold, tin and tantalum.
Many
date back to the 1998-2003 Congolese civil war, fuelled by Rwandan
intervention, in which millions died, either in the conflict or of
hunger and disease.
However, the biggest militia
still at large, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda,
known by the French acronym FDLR, is led by ethnic Hutus who fled to
Congo from Rwanda after helping instigate the 1994 genocide.
As
a member of the United Nations-mandated Force Intervention Brigade -
itself a unit of the U.N.’s 20,000-strong MONUSCO peace keeping
operation, its biggest in the world – it is Mndebele’s job to identify
the rebels and disarm them, if need be by force. But it is easier said
than done.
“These armed groups, they wear the same
uniform as the government forces. That makes it difficult to
distinguish between them,” said Colonel Bayanda Mkula, second-in-command
of the FIB in Goma, eastern Congo’s regional capital.
The United Nations on Friday however pledged to step up its efforts.
DARK FUTURE
The
most notable achievement of the FIB, a joint South African, Tanzanian
and Malawian ‘peace enforcement’ operation, was its contribution along
with Congolese forces to the 2013 destruction of M23, the largest and
best-armed of the groups and widely believed to be a proxy of Rwanda.
Although
it had heavy weapons, including two tanks, M23 was no match for South
African state-of-the-art Rooivalk attack helicopters based in Goma.
However,
the problem for South Africa, which sees its 1,000-strong FIB
deployment as a key part of its regional foreign policy, is that the
Rooivalk is less potent against militiamen who are guerrillas by night
but villagers by day, hiding their rifles and grenade launchers to blend
in with the civilian population.
With few South
Africans speaking Swahili or French, the region’s two main languages,
they are heavily reliant on the Congolese military for intelligence.
Kinshasa
has repeatedly stated that it is committed to eradicating the rebels,
yet suspicions remain that its forces are dragging their feet, either
because of an anti-Rwanda agenda or because local and national
politicians have a stake in the millions of dollars extorted from
illegal mining and logging.
With elections expected in a year’s time, analysts say the situation is only likely to get worse.
“The future is dark,” said Fidel Bafilemba, a Goma-based researcher for the Enough Project, an advocacy group.
“If
there was a genuine commitment to wiping out these armed groups, none
of them could resist. The FIB has its helicopter gunships and heavy
weapons but will do nothing against the armed groups unless there is
political will.”
Analysts also suspect that South
Africa and Tanzania may be reluctant to hit the FDLR and its 1,500
fighters because it would serve as a gift to hardline Rwandan president Paul Kagame, with whom diplomatic relations are less than warm.
PLUNDER
Complicating
the situation further, analysts say the groups are splintering into
smaller and smaller factions, clouding the intelligence picture and
increasing the risks of civilian casualties from heavy-duty U.N.
military intervention.
According to a report last
month by the Congo Research Project, a regional monitor, there are now
at least 69 armed rebel militias in the provinces of North and South
Kivu, three times as many as 2008.
Most probably
only have a few hundred men under arms, but the proliferation is
testament to the failure to offer rebels any alternative to a career of
plunder and pillage.
“Despite two rounds of a
stabilization programme, the government and its foreign partners have
been unable to create a virtuous cycle of economic development in the
rural Kivus that could entice local leaders to invest in stability
rather than conflict,” the Congo Research Project said.
“At
the same time, the government has been slow to hold its army officers
involved in racketeering and the support of armed groups accountable.”
Only
after egregious acts of violence, such as the killing this week of
dozens of people by Ugandan Islamists in another group, the Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF), has the FIB managed to act decisively.
Two
Rooivalk helicopters sent in returned to Goma having fired all their
ammunition and rockets and inflicted casualties on the ADF, although
South African officials did not provide details.
Yet
even then, there were questions over the extent of Congolese approval
for the mission. A Congolese spokesman said the national army played no
role in the operation and intelligence-sharing went little beyond
informal conversation.
“There is still a need to
deal with ADF, FDLR and smaller armed groups but it’s not South Africa
that decides unilaterally on operations,” said Major-General Barney Hlatshwayo, the South African military’s director of operations.
Speaking
in the town of Beni near the scene of the ADF attacks, in which a
Malawian peace-keeper was also killed, U.N. Special Representative Maman Sambo Sidikou promised that international forces would be cranking up the pressure.
“In terms of operations, we can’t continue (to) be as timid as we are," he was quoted as saying on MONUSCO's Twitter feed.
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