UN 'failing' in Congo says own report

The world's largest and most expensive United Nations peacekeeping force has failed to stop militia attacks which have killed tens of thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a report from the UN itself

By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
Published: 5:22PM GMT 25 Nov 2009

Military and logistical support from the world body's operation in Congo to the country's armed forces has instead made the crisis in one of the world's most violent regions even worse, the leaked document says.

The UN's mission in Congo, known as Monuc, has further failed to stop the supplies of weapons streaming into eastern Congo, paid for with blood minerals mined from rebel-held areas.

Monuc had teamed up with Congo's military in offensives against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), made up of ethnic Hutus and led by people believed to have orchestrated Rwanda's genocide.

The FDLR was also being targeted by a Congolese Tutsi rebel group, the CNDP, formerly led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda.

The three-way fighting has killed tens of thousands of the very people who the UN is supposed to be in Congo to protect in the provinces of North and South Kivu. Hundreds of thousands more have been forced from their homes and countless women have been raped.

"Military operations have... not succeeded in neutralising the FDLR, have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Kivus and have resulted in an expansion of CNDP military influence in the region," said the report from the UN-mandated 'Group of Experts' on Congo.

Despite the surrender of more than 1,200 of its estimated 6,000 to 8,000 fighters, the FDLR continues to replenish its ranks through the active recruitment of both Congolese and Rwandan Hutus, the group said.

The rebels benefit from support networks in Africa, Europe and North America, as well as financing from its control of eastern Congo's lucrative tin deposits, despite the army's efforts to push them out of mining areas.

"The Group calculates that the FDLR could earn at least several hundred thousand dollars and up to a few million dollars a year from this trade," said the report, which is due to be discussed by the Security Council on Wednesday.

Monuc has more than 17,000 troops and staff in Congo at a cost of more than £600 million a year.