|

DR Congo

Field Reports  In-Depth Reports  Letters & Testimonies

Overview
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is still contending with ongoing conflict in its troubled east. As of November 2012, more than 2.4 million Congolese were internally displaced and more than 460,000 had become refugees in neighboring countries. Myriad armed groups threaten civilians in North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale provinces, uprooting families from their homes and taking away their livelihoods when not killing or raping them outright. While local government officials, UN agencies and international and local NGOs strive to mitigate the suffering of the displaced, the ongoing violence and insecurity in eastern DRC must be addressed in order for living conditions to improve significantly.

Current Humanitarian Situation
M23, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and other rebel groups in North and South Kivu continue to control swaths of countryside, especially remote areas, causing new displacement and making it impossible for those already displaced to return to their land. Armed groups, including the national army (FARDC), have repeatedly engaged in acts of sexual violence, especially against young women and girls. More efforts are necessary to better protect the displaced and the most vulnerable amongst them. Access for humanitarian organizations to assist displaced populations remains extremely challenging due to ongoing insecurity and poor roads. In certain areas people have been able to return to their land, sometimes leading to ethnic tensions and land disputes which require community-level conflict resolution initiatives. Meanwhile, for those people displaced for long periods and the host communities helping them, assistance must go beyond basic services to include a focus on livelihoods and education.   

While the number of people affected is not as great as in the Kivus, parts of Orientale province are the scene of violence perpetrated by other groups, notably the Lord’s Resistance Army. Ongoing attacks cause new displacement and instability prevents people from restarting their lives. Meanwhile Equateur, in the west of the country, is preparing for the return of thousands of refugees displaced during localized fighting in 2009. A well-implemented and coordinated reintegration effort will be crucial in ensuring peace and stability in the area.

The UN peacekeeping/stabilization mission MONUSCO (reconfigured from MONUC as of July 2010) has made significant efforts to develop ways to better protect civilians, especially in North Kivu. It is, however, hampered by resource constraints and maintains an uneasy relationship with the poorly trained and ill-equipped national army. MONUSCO needs to be enabled to build on its best practices and extend them to other areas.   

Field Reports
  • 03/26/2013
    Au cours de l’Automne 2012, des centaines de milliers de personnes ont fuit leur maison en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) à la suite d’affrontements entre le groupe rebelle M23 et l’armée congolaise. La province du Nord Kivu a vu à elle seule 914 000 personnes se réfugier dans des camps et auprès de familles d’accueil. Malheureusement, l’agence des Nations Unies pour les Réfugiés (HCR) coordonne seulement l’assistance destinée aux résidents des camps, 112 000 personnes, soit un neuvième de la population déplacée. Les personnes déplacées en zones reculées, en particulier celles vivant dans des « sites spontanés » et dans des familles d’accueil, ne peuvent bénéficier des mécanismes de coordination mis en place, et reçoivent trop souvent peu voire pas d’assistance ou de protection. Les violences basées sur le genre (VBG) sont endémiques, et les programmes de protection destinés aux femmes et filles sont insuffisants. Désormais, et plus que jamais, les acteurs humanitaires en RDC doivent améliorer la coordination de l’aide humanitaire et s’assurer que la mise en place de l’assistance se fait selon des critères de vulnérabilité plutôt que de statut.
  • 03/26/2013
    In the fall of 2012, hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fled their homes following fighting between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army. In North Kivu province alone, 914,000 people took shelter in camps and with host families. Unfortunately, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) only coordinates support for those persons living in official camps – 112,000 people, or one ninth of the displaced population. Displaced persons in remote areas, particularly those living in “spontaneous settlements” and with host families, have been left out of coordination mechanisms, and in many cases they have received little to no assistance or protection. Gender-based violence (GBV) is rampant, and programs to protect women and girls are insufficient. Now more than ever, aid actors in the DRC need to improve aid coordination and ensure that assistance is based on vulnerability rather than status.
In Depth Reports
  • 02/24/2010

    When violent conflict breaks out, the United States and other United Nations member states often call for the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces to create stability and protect people from harm. The UN Security Council has explicitly instructed peacekeepers to protect civilians under “imminent threat of violence” in most UN peacekeeping mandates since 1999. But there is no clarity as to what “protection” means in practice. Which circumstances require action and what level of force should be used? This has resulted in a lack of proper training, guidance and resources for peacekeepers to accomplish protection activities.

  • 10/17/2006
    For more than a decade, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has struggled with one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Yet, improbably, that situation has improved markedly over the past few years. Seventy percent of the electorate has voted in the first democratic contest for president in four decades; violence in the east has eased, largely due to the presence of the UN peacekeeping force, MONUC; and humanitarian response has improved even as internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees begin to return home.
Successes

In March 2011, two communities in Equateur province in the DR Congo signed a non-aggression pact ending more than a year of deadly conflict.  We are pleased that peace has arrived after the UN and other agencies followed RI’s recommendation to support reconciliation efforts.

Then in August 2011, as the new UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) was being formed, RI was instrumental in pushing the UN Security Council to prioritize the protection of civilians and authorize the greatest possible number of troops.