Thirty-six dead including four blue helmets and 32 demonstrators. This is the official, but above all heavy, record over a week of demonstrations against the presence of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monusco).
And the tension remains high between the UN mission and the Congolese, whether they are civilian populations or leaders. The latest escalation in this crisis is the request by the Congolese authorities for the departure of the UN spokesperson in DR Congo. Mathias Gillmann, that’s his name, is accused of throwing oil on the fire, through an interview he gave to our colleagues at RFI. [Les propos qui sont reprochés à Mathias Gillmann datent du 13 juillet dernier. Lors d’un point presse, il a affirmé que “les terroristes du M23 disposent d’armes plus sophistiquées que ce qu’ils avaient il y a quelques mois”. Réaction du gouvernement : “C’est un aveu d’impuissance pour la Monusco”, une déclaration “qui démotive les militaires au front et qui démontre clairement l’état d’esprit des Casques bleus”.]
A limited mandate
However, nothing should justify this violence and death which only further poisons relations between Kinshasa and the glass palace of New York. [siège de l’ONU]. Moreover, the schedule for the gradual withdrawal of Monusco from the DRC by 2024 is already on the table, and the power of Félix Tshisekedi [président de la RDC] even asked for it to be re-evaluated.
Except that the Congolese, for whom Monusco is not able to protect them against external aggressions, in particular those of the M23, want to hasten this departure, which is far from being a panacea against civil wars in this country-continent. whose incredible wealth of the subsoil arouses covetousness, as many politicians and various local economic interest groups as neighboring countries and foreign powers.
And that is not from today. The various rebellions that have contributed to the instability of a DR Congo which has never really known peace throughout its territory, by Mobutu Sese Seko [président de la RDC de 1965 à 1997] to Felix Tshisekedi [élu en 2018]passing through the Kabila son and father [Joseph Kabila, président de la RDC de 2001 à 2019 et Laurent-Désiré Kabila, père du précédent et président de la RDC de 1997 à 2001]are they due to Monusco, which only left its penates on Congolese soil in July 2010, provided with a light stabilization mandate, and without the possibility of offensive initiative?
Even attacked, as was often the case, Monusco had little room for reaction, paying a heavy price for the wars in Congo, where many blue helmets lost their lives.
Admittedly, the last monumental blunder of peacekeepers who opened fire on Sunday [31 juillet] in Kasindi, North Kivu region, bordering Uganda, causing deaths and injuries, it is difficult to find an excuse, but the harassment against these UN soldiers was not the least. They probably had their finger on the trigger, survival instinct requires!
It is all the same time to calm things down in order to save what can still be saved in relations between the UN and its Congolese host and achieve a peaceful withdrawal of the UN mission from the DRC.
In any case, the threads of the dialogue can be renewed, if the two parties, in particular the government of the DR Congo, which is now adopting an offensive posture without ambiguity against Monusco, would like it. The weather could cause a lot of water to flow under the bridges. For the moment, we just have to know reason to keep to prevent more blood from reddening the hands of Blue Helmets assailed from all sides.
Question: if such is the will of those to whom it is supposed to make a contribution to the return to peace, not to see it again, not even in dreams, why does MONUSCO not accelerate its withdrawal, which would be far from a deliberate leak, especially since it is already recorded?
Dark times for UN missions in Africa
Unfortunately, it is not only in DR Congo that the weather is dark for the UN in Africa. In Mali, where the military junta that came to power after its August 2020 coup clings to power and spins perfect love with elements of the Russian private security company Wagner, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Mission for stabilization in Mali (Minusma) is going through the worst times of its life.
His mandate, renewed on June 30, 2022, is not at all to the liking of the putschists in power, who, as in DR Congo, expelled the spokesman of the UN mission from their territory and probably reserve the same fate for the Minusma, by entrusting the dirty work to acquired civil society organizations. For Colonel Assimi Goïta, any force that could thwart his personal plans is non grata in Mali. The French forces Barkhane and European Takuba, the French ambassador Joël Meyer, the spokesman of the Minusma Olivier Salgado, the media RFI and France 24, to name only these, know something about it!
In any case, Monusco or Minusma, the UN forces no longer have the coast in Bamako and Kinshasa. They are doomed and thrown to civilian populations by leaders who forget that it is their negligence and their inability to provide protection to their own which has led to the presence of UN stabilization missions in their countries.