Politics

Following Mali’s lead, President Tshisekedi wants UN peacekeeping mission to leave Congo DR

Published

7 months ago

September 21, 2023

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi has requested for withdrawal of a key UN peacekeeping mission that has been in the nation for nearly 25 years.

Tshisekedi made the call during his address at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. “It is time for our country to take full control of its destiny and become the main actor in its own stability,” the president said.

For years, discussions over the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have focused on the UN Stabilization Mission in the country (Monusco) which has been the subject of controversy and populist rhetoric in the Central African country.

Tshisekedi said that the mission of some 15,000 peacekeepers “has not succeeded in confronting the rebellions and armed conflicts… nor in protecting the civilian populations.”

He added that it was “illusory and counterproductive to continue to cling to the maintenance of Monusco to restore peace.”

Several assaults and protests against the UN mission in the nation have taken place. In a crackdown on an anti-UN protest in eastern DR Congo in August, about 50 people were killed.

“The acceleration of the withdrawal of Monusco becomes absolutely necessary to ease tensions,” said Tshisekedi

With a budget of nearly $1 billion annually, the UN peacekeeping mission in the East African region, which has been operational since 1999, is one of the biggest and most expensive in the world.

However, in the DRC, it is widely believed that the peacekeepers have failed to stop the conflict, and the UN faces harsh criticism because the political and security environment has deteriorated sharply, creating a severe humanitarian crisis in the eastern part of the country.

There appears to be a growing wave of anti-UN peacekeeping forces in some countries of Africa. Mail had earlier asked the UN to end its mission in the country and withdraw, a request the UN honoured, ending the MINUSMA mission in the country.

Related Topics:Congo DR Featured President Felix Tshisekedi

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

14 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.