Evaluation of The United Nation’s Operation in Congo

After United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) which was created in 1960 in order to restore peace and stability following Congo’s independence (Zabeki, 2017), the United Nations intervened again by establishing the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) on November 1999 under the resolution 1291. It consisted of 5,537 personnel, and up to 500 observers. The main objectives of MONUC included monitoring the implementation of ceasefire agreement, investigating the violation of the agreement, working in collaborations with parties regarding the releasing of war criminals, and providing humanitarian assistances. It is worth mentioning that the mentioned mandates are rather considered to be traditional peace operations where the United Nations only acted as observers than interveners. In 2003, MONUC with its limited scope and duration, failed to prevent the ethnic violence in Ituri province; hence, the peace operation is considered as a failure as the result of not be able to stop the fighting. Nevertheless, the mandate of MONUC did toughen in 2004. The Security Council authorized an increase of personnel by 5,900 while The Secretary General requested for 13,000 personnel. The overall mandates comprised of protection of human rights, particularly women and children, disarmament, demobilization, protection and freedom of UN personnel, facilities, equipment, and having presence at key areas in order to prevent violence. Even with the promised and improved mandates, the UN once again, failed to fulfill its duties. UN personnel ended up as becoming targets of the rebels, and even worse, UN personnel themselves have been reported of sexual misconduct. Moreover, humanitarian crises were not solved but got worsen instead. Ethnic cleansing, rape, and violence were committed by both militia and Congolese government. However, despites the failures, the 2006 presidential election can be considered as free and fair with the help of EU (Karns & Mingst, 2010, p. 339-340). By 2008, the mandate was extended to facilitate the local elections under resolution 1797. Furthermore, under resolution 1856, the deployment of MONUC was extended until December 2009 which made up of 19,815 personnel, 760 military observers, 391 police personnel and, 1,050 of formed personnel police units. Undoubtedly, the UN encouraged working in collaboration with the government particularly on the eastern part of the country with the priority of protecting civilian lives, but seeing the fighting was on going at the time, MONUC can be hardly considered as a successful peace operation (The United Nations, 2018a).

In addition to that, the UN decided to rename MONUC to United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) on July 1, 2010 under resolution 1925 of 28 May. The mandate was extended three times so far under resolution 2098 on 28 March 2013, resolution 2147 on 28 March 2014, and resolution 2348 on 31st March 2017. On 28 March 2013, the UN created a specialized “intervention brigade” that lasted for a year in response to the instability in Great Lakes region. It has the responsibility of counteract with armed group that posed threats to the states and civilian in the eastern regions. Based on resolution 2147, the UN determined to extend MONUSCO deployment until 31 March 2015 and also included the earlier “intervention brigade” to the mandates with 19,815 personnel, 760 military observers and staff officers, 391 police personnel, and 1,050 formed police units, which was exact amount as stated under resolution 1856. On top of that, the mandate was also extended for another year (The United Nations, 2018b). Meanwhile under resolution 2348, the Security Council decided to reduce the troops from 19,815 to 16,215 while extending the mandates until March 2018. The UN also suggested that the government should take responsibility for the violation of international law (The Security Council, 2017).

In a nutshell, we can see that the UN has made quite of notable efforts to tackle the problems; however, it cannot go unnoticed that the crises are still happening as of right now. It is no doubt that MONUSCO is one of the largest and most expensive peace operation, but it is not always viewed as the most effective. On top of that, The United Nations has been accused of being ineffective as well as driven by political interests instead of trying to solve the problems (Moloo, 2016).