Fifteen people killed in North Kivu, including three Blue Helmets, four others killed by electrocution during the dispersal of a demonstration in Uvira (South Kivu): this is the assessment of the demonstrations which have targeted, since July 25 , personnel and facilities of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco) in the east of the country. An increasingly unpopular mission.
Wave of protests
In Goma, Beni, Butembo, Nyamilima, Sake (in the province of North Kivu) and Uvira, the demonstrators accused the Blue Helmets of being ineffective in the fight against the hundreds of local and foreign armed groups that bloody the eastern part of the DRC for three decades. They called for the immediate departure of the mission.
A first demonstration had brought together about fifty women who marched calmly on July 22 in Goma where they were unable to deposit their memorandum at the local headquarters of the UN mission, the doors being closed to them. In this capital of the province of North Kivu, young people took over on July 25. They forced the gates of the mission headquarters and its logistics base looting and destroying everything in their path. The movement continued the next day by reaching other provincial towns: Beni, Butembo and Nyamilima. Over the two days, around 60 people were injured, according to the authorities.
The demonstrators were responding to a call from associations and politicians, in particular the citizen movement Fight for Change (Lucha), the youth of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS, ruling party) or even the President of the Senate Modeste Bahati who, passing through the region 10 days earlier, had invited Monusco to “packing up” and leave after 22 years of presence in the DRC.
While the towns of the province of South Kivu had so far been spared this wave of protests, a group of young people tried to besiege the headquarters of Monusco in Uvira on July 27. A Apparent calm reigned on the morning of July 28 in other towns in eastern DRC where the presence of Congolese security forces was visible.
Unanimous conviction
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres condemned “firmly” this violence “in which individuals and groups forcibly entered bases and engaged in looting and destruction of United Nations property, while looting and burning residences of United Nations personnel”. He pointed out, in a press release“that any attack directed against United Nations peacekeepers may constitute a war crime, and (called) the Congolese authorities to investigate these incidents and quickly bring those responsible to justice.”,
Congolese Minister of Communication and government spokesman Patrick Muyaya also “firmly” condemned these attacks and indicated that “the responsibles (would) prosecuted and severely punished”. The Congolese authorities assured, on July 26, that a joint investigation with the UN mission would be carried out to establish responsibilities. The United Nations Security Council, the United States and France have also condemned this violence against peacekeepers.
#RDC : The Government is closely monitoring the situation in #Goma following the call to demonstrate against the @MONUSCO. He strongly condemns any form of attack against United Nations personnel and facilities. Those responsible will be prosecuted and severely punished.
— Patrick Muyaya (@PatrickMuyaya) July 25, 2022
Since Monday, opinion leaders in the DRC, international organizations and other foreign governments have multiplied calls for calm. In a press release, the episcopal conference of the DRC thus “(sentenced) firmly any violence that prevailed during the demonstrations”. But she also says she understands “the anger of the compatriots who participate in these demonstrations” and “like them, she believes that the government (Congolese) and Monusco have shown their limits in their mission to secure populations exposed to attacks by armed groups” in the DRC.
A mission “in phase of withdrawal”
“It is quite possible that the protesters against Monusco were manipulated. But what is clear is that the mission has lost a lot of popularity”, analyzed on Twitter Jason Stearns, head of experts at the Congo Studies Group (GEC, attached to the University of New York). He added that opinions in favor of maintaining Monusco’s presence in the DRC have fallen from 55.1% in 2016 to 44.7% today.
It is quite possible that the protesters against the @MONUSCO have been manipulated. But what is clear is that the mission has lost a lot of popularity. Our surveys with BERCI show it: pic.twitter.com/0cIRddpHsg
—Jason Stearns (@jasonkstearns) July 27, 2022
In the DRC since 1999, MONUSCO is one of the largest and most expensive UN missions in the world. Today present in the eastern part of the Congolese territory (in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri), it has more than 14,000 peacekeepers, with an annual budget of one billion of dollars. “Our most ardent wish is to see the east (from DRC) stabilized”, assured on July 26 Khassim Diagne, deputy head of Monusco, during a joint press conference with the Congolese Minister of Communication.
He also clarified that the UN mission was “in phase of withdrawal”. “We have just withdrawn from Tanganyika province (…) on June 30, 2022. Our withdrawal from Tanganyika is part of a pilot project of the Mission’s general withdrawal plan”has indicated Khassim Diagne.