Recent turbulence in the financial market is a reminder that economic stability is heavily reliant on collective perceptions and 'market confidence'. So it is with security, and nowhere is this more evident than in a so-called fragile state like the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is plummeting into a different kind of recession.
The seemingly endless crisis in North Kivu is making a rare foray into the international news agenda. (Recent reports: New York Times, Reuters, BBC.) It's more complicated than this, but here's some of the recent background:
Not so long ago, North Kivu was controlled by the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma, a legacy of the 1998-2004 conflict which came to be known as 'Africa's First World War' because so many people died and because so many neighbouring countries sent troops to fight and plunder as the alliance of convenience that had helped Laurent Kabila topple Mobutu in 1997 fell apart.
As part of the power-sharing agreement that ended the war (but certainly not insecurity in the east), the RCD was given nearly a fifth of the seats in the National Assembly, but it was deeply unpopular, representing Rwandan interests and dominance of the Tutsi minority. When the Congolese people finally had a chance to vote for their representatives in 2006, the RCD held onto only 15 seats out of 500.
President Joseph Kabila owed a large part of his success in those elections to his overwhelming support in the war-ravaged eastern provinces, where he took credit for the UN-managed, internationally-financed elections and convinced the population that he would bring peace and security by ending the plague of foreign armed groups and local militias.
Unfortunately, the latter task fell to cautious, over-stretched UN forces and a corrupt, inept national army that was composed of former warring factions. With the huge country split into myriad, inaccessible local enclaves, it was never going to be easy to resolve all the problems of corruption, mismanagement and inter-ethnic power struggles. But the immediate post-election period offered a real window of opportunity for the new government to unite the country behind a clear vision and (with UN support) determined backing for the rule of law. They blew it.
Through costly trial and error in militia-infested Ituri (bordering Uganda), some evidence emerged that the formula of newly trained Congolese brigades backed by (Pakistani, South African, Guatemalan and at one stage European) peacekeepers ready and able to project and use force could produce results.
But the army was rotten, and those who called for senior officers (including untrained former militia leaders) to be vetted for war crimes and prevented from pocketing all the pay were repeatedly told that such niceties would have to wait until later. Ordinary soldiers were left to fend for themselves, in the fine tradition established by Mobutu in his decline, with predictable effects on their morale and reputation.
When the Congolese army was sent to oust Laurent Nkunda's CNDP rebels from their strongholds in the hills of North Kivu late last year, they relied on overwhelming numbers, lots of new weapons, and dangerous alliances with local and foreign Hutu militia groups (I saw both in Masisi when researching for Human Rights Watch). UN support was limited to logistics and medical evacuations, partly for fear of becoming complicit in war crimes. As the CNDP ceded ground, the army bombarded empty hilltops and proclaimed great victories. In a dramatic turnaround, the army was routed as soon as the rebels counterattacked, abandoning their uniforms and looting as they fled.
Diplomats scrambled to salvage the situation. A ceasefire was agreed, followed by a dubious peace deal that contained the conflict while acknowledging and cementing the status quo. Clashes and human rights violations continued even as the deal was being negotiated, so the local population and civil society remained deeply skeptical of the intentions of the signatories.
Referring the Congolese army's alliance with the FDLR (a Rwandan Hutu rebel group led by former genocidaires) and frequent ceasefire violations, the CNDP announced its withdrawal from the peace process. On 2 October, media-savvy Nkunda told the BBC he was ready to expand his operations to 'liberate the people of the Congo'. That statement must have earned him a lot of people's undivided attention.
Now the CNDP have once again humiliated the Congolese army by forcing them to flee strategic positions across North Kivu, tellingly beginning with the stretch of Virunga National Park which offers a supply line from Rwanda. (The CNDP certainly recruits from Congolese Tutsi refugees in Rwanda, and there are frequent allegations that they have covert support from the Rwandan army as well.)
UN troops tried to block the advance, stationing APCs to block the roads into Rutshuru, north of Goma. But the CNDP works in small, mobile groups, so they simply bypassed the barricades and overran the town, sabotaging the mobile phone network as they did so.
Large numbers have already fled Goma. Now the remaining population, including tens of thousands of displaced people who have nowhere left to go, is huddled and waiting to see what happens next. They are bitterly disappointed by their own government and have no faith left in the UN. The years of conflict have furnished them with numerous nasty memories from which to compose worst-case scenarios. They heard gunfire all night, but cannot tell who's doing the shooting: rebels, soldiers on a looting spree, or just firing in the air?
International relief workers and UN staff are gathered in two fortified compounds in Goma, sleeping on the floor, eating rations and trying to keep up with the news to see if they will be evacuated.
Nkunda declared a ceasefire last night. Is his plan to leave the CNDP as de facto authority of a big chunk of fertile, mineral-rich North Kivu, or do his ambitions really extend even further? Aware of the regional implications, the UN Security Council is anxiously pondering its options, including the rapid deployment of a UN-mandated European force.
« back to Fred on the Democratic Republic of Congo home
Background to the crisis in North Kivu
on October 30, 2008 7:44 AM | 0
Fred on the Democratic Republic of Congo
Calendar
« October 2008
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Recent posts
- Background to the crisis in North Kivu by on October 30, 2008 7:44 AM
- Hello pal by on May 9, 2008 8:21 AM
- Demystifying the Congo by on April 30, 2008 10:38 AM
Archives
Our Bloggers
- Adam Blenford on Photojournalism
Last update on 22/07/09 - Alex Strick van Linschoten - a war reporter on the road
Last update on 16/12/09 - Ali S. Novruzov in Azerbaijan
Last update on 22/04/10 - Anastasia Moloney in Bogota
Last update on 23/12/08 - Anita Coulson in Africa
Last update on 04/04/08 - Ben Hammersley in the Philippines
Last update on 17/02/08 - Charlotte Cook on Documentary
Last update on 26/04/10 - Daniel Bennett - Reporting War
Last update on 01/06/10 - David Axe - Africa is Boring
Last update on 18/05/10 - David Gill in Afghanistan
Last update on 20/01/09 - Deborah Bonello in Mexico
Last update on 15/10/09 - Devjyot Ghoshal in India
Last update on 15/08/09 - Fred on the Democratic Republic of Congo
Last update on 30/10/08 - From War Zones to the Wilderness
Last update on 21/04/08 - Frontline Club on documentary films
Last update on 17/03/09 - Glenna Gordon in Liberia
Last update on 03/03/09 - Guy Degen in Germany
Last update on 01/06/10 - Heathcliff O'Malley - a photojournalist on the road
Last update on 03/02/09 - Hodan Yusuf-Pankhurst on Somalia
Last update on 18/04/10 - Isabelle Roughol about Cambodia
Last update on 26/10/09 - John Owen on international news reporting
Last update on 01/06/10 - Jonathan Gorvett in Borneo
Last update on 26/12/08 - Kevin German in Vietnam
Last update on 18/02/09 - Kyle MacRae on citizen journalism
Last update on 09/06/08 - Last week at the Frontline Club
Last update on 26/10/09 - Matthew Collin in Georgia
Last update on 23/05/10 - Michael O' Riordan in the United Arab Emirates
Last update on 10/12/08 - Mike Hills in Lebanon
Last update on 30/07/09 - Morten Hvaal a photojournalist on the road
Last update on 10/06/09 - Natalia Viana in Brazil
Last update on 15/09/09 - Olga Kravtsova on journalism and trauma
Last update on 05/02/10 - Oliver Balch in India
Last update on 30/01/10 - Onnik Krikorian in Armenia
Last update on 30/05/10 - Pete Chonka on Somaliland
Last update on 09/05/10 - Peter Moszynski on Sudan
Last update on 03/03/09 - Phyza Jameel in Pakistan
Last update on 08/12/09 - Rob Crilly - African Safari
Last update on 05/04/10 - Salam Pax in Baghdad
Last update on 11/03/09 - Sasa in Syria
Last update on 12/05/09 - The Forum - Journalism, insight and debate at the Frontline Club
Last update on 03/06/10 - Vaughan Smith in Afghanistan
Last update on 20/02/10 - Yawar Nazir and Abdul Mohamin Bhat in Kashmir
Last update on 15/05/09 - Zimbabaloola in Zimbabwe
Last update on 22/04/08
What do you think?