Permanent crisis in the DR Congo: Poor rich country

The world’s most expensive peacekeeping mission has been running in the DR Congo for 25 years. Nevertheless, violence continues in the east of the country. The UN Security Council is discussing the situation there today – without a new strategy.

Groups of people trudge down a dirt road in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. All are heavily laden. They carry cloth bundles with clothes, canisters, some even mattresses.

Safari Hangi has a toddler on her shoulders and six other children with her. The 42-year-old left his village when heavily armed militia fighters approached. “There were so many. We kept hearing shots,” he told Reuters news agency. All residents have fled.

Access to mines is often at stake

What remained was one of the many ghost villages in eastern Congo. When the militiamen come, they set the huts on fire. If there are still residents there, they will be killed.

The region is in permanent crisis. Changing militias fight against each other and against the Congolese army. Often it is about access to mines. Valuable mineral resources such as copper, coltan and diamonds are stored in the Congo.

The situation has become particularly critical in recent months, partly because of the M23 militia, which consists largely of ethnic Tutsi. It has been active with interruptions for more than ten years and has recently become stronger and stronger.

“It’s important for the world to know what’s going on here”

The number of refugees has increased so much that the European Union has also felt compelled to do something. About two weeks ago, the first plane with EU relief supplies landed in the provincial capital Goma, loaded with tents, mattresses and medicine, among other things.

In Goma alone there are now 600,000 refugees, says the ambassador of the European Union in the Congo, Jean-Marc Châtaigner. More and more makeshift camps are also being built on the way into the city.

First, humanitarian aid worth 47 million euros should be sent, so Châtaigner and promised further payments. “We cannot remain indifferent. It is important that the world knows what is happening here.”

Most expensive blue helmet mission worldwide

A delegation from the UN Security Council was recently on site to get an idea of ​​the situation. For the United Nations, it is also about deciding on the future of the peacekeeping mission in the Congo. Blue helmet soldiers have been stationed here for almost 25 years.

It is the most expensive mission in the world. However, nothing has changed as a result. France’s permanent UN representative, Nicolas De Rivière, said at a press conference in Goma that the presence of the troops alone is not enough. “The way out of the crisis can only be found politically, through negotiations,” he stressed. At the same time, violence must be used if necessary, especially against groups like the M23.

All strategies against militias unsuccessful

But all strategies against the militias have so far come to nothing. If one gives up their weapons, the next one will form up elsewhere. The only option for the people is to flee.

At the end of last year, more than five million people were displaced within the Congo, according to figures from the UN refugee agency. Like family man Safari Hangi, many of them no longer see a future.

“We are suffering a lot because of this war. We could be in our village cultivating the fields,” says Hangi. But now they are refugees and everything is over.