Article link:https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1115022
In the DR, one of UN’s top envoys has recently called for, “comprehensive political strategy that includes measures to address the structural causes of the conflicts.” This year alone they had 2,300 civilian deaths. In the east of the Congo, the military defense has deteriorated despite the operations against armed groups by the national security force. Earlier on Tuesday, the mission reported that a search and rescue operation was underway, after a Puma helicopter lost contact with MONUSCO and crashed in the restive North Kivu region. It is reported that the passengers were all pakistan military, two personal, one from Russia and the other from Serbia. Due to this helicopter crash there has been an investigation launched.
There’s two major issues that need to be focused on. The armed groups are gaining more power and territory of the DR, which is extremely worrisome. The Armed Democratic Forces (ADF) militants are responsible for this. In addition, even more concerning is that the M23, a rebel movement in northern Kivu, has gained an uprising in power. The main reason why the situation has worsened is because of the M23 using explosives given to them by the ADF. Due to these attacks that these rebel groups are doing; it caused the human rights violations to go up by 10%, which is another point on how the civilians of the DR are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Unfortunately, with the efforts from the UN and Congolese the resources they are trying to provide to prevent these rebel groups from gaining power are insufficient.
The UN peace and security goal is a point we discussed in class.The UN accomplishes this by working to prevent conflict, helping parties in conflict make peace, deploying peacekeepers, and creating the conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish. These activities often overlap and should reinforce one another, to be effective.