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Blue helmet blues

B E N I

The world’s largest peacekeeping mission has struggled to bring peace

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38

Middle East & Africa

The Economist

September 5th 2020

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In any case, 

monusco 

can stay only as

long as the Congolese government wants it

to. It is meant to work alongside the nation-

al army. Whereas Congo’s former presi-

dent, Joseph Kabila, routinely threatened

to kick it out, his successor, Félix Tshise-

kedi, is keener to co-operate with it. Yet

working with the army is tricky. Its unruly,

underpaid soldiers often collaborate with

rebels, selling them guns and tipping them

off. Sometimes they kill and loot together.

Many former rebel warlords have been giv-

en senior posts in the army in exchange for

surrendering their weapons. Their thugs

tend to go on pillaging as before—but in

army uniforms. 

“We cannot trust our soldiers and we do

not know who the enemy is,” says a villager

near Beni whose eight neighbours were

rounded up and shot outside their houses

last year. He says the killers were uni-

formed Congolese soldiers speaking Linga-

la, the language of the capital and the army.

These murders took place barely a mile

from 

monusco

’s offices, sparking the prot-

ests in which they were burned down. “No-

body came to help. We were forgotten.”

To make matters worse,

un 

troops in

Congo have themselves often been accused

of violence. Dozens of women say they

have been raped by blue-helmeted soldiers

in eastern Congo. Posters in 

monusco

’s

barracks remind 

un 

troops not to have sex

with under-age women. 

Yet for all 

monusco

’s faults, Congo

would probably be worse off without it. Its

soldiers are more trusted than the Congo-

lese army. “In many places, peacekeepers

are the only ones who are actually trying to

protect people,” says Séverine Autesserre,

author of “The Trouble with Congo”. 

mo-

nusco

’s civilian staff have documented

abuses by rebels and the army that would

have gone unnoticed. Aid agencies rely on

monusco

’s planes and armed escorts to

help them reach remote, beleaguered

places. If 

monusco 

leaves in a rush it will

leave a gaping hole that is bound to be filled

by rebels and predatory soldiers. 

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