Ugandan president just exposed the un crisis in congo

Have you observed that every article on Google that talks about the withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo, always paints it as if it was their idea to leave? If you check, these articles usually start like this “The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously in favour of gradually phasing out its peacekeeping operations known as MONUSCO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Well, they may have voted but the truth is they were kicked out by the people and government of the DRC who have had enough of their presence in their country. It’s the same way these so-called peacekeepers were also kicked out of Mali when it became obvious to everyone that they had failed to achieve the reason why they came into the country in the first place. Now, have you ever wondered why in most African countries, the number one problem they have been facing in recent times is insecurity? And, if you observe all these countries with a serious security crisis, one thing that is always present is the presence of external security forces sent by the concerned international community to deal with the security problem. However, these foreign security forces, for instance, the UN peacekeepers, always fail to solve the problem despite their sophisticated weaponry and huge budget. The question is why? Why has no African country, for example, the DRC, been able to deal with insecurity either caused by Islamist jihadists or armed rebels despite the presence of UN forces? For the DRC crisis, Uganda President, Yoweri Museveni gives some answers. Let’s take a look.

On his X account, the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, accused the United Nations of conserving” terrorism in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and breeding chaos in multiple countries in the Sahel region. In his own words “Part of the terrorism in Africa is either created or conserved by some of the actors that try to be global policemen- in other words the UN. He also added that “The chaos in Libya and the surrounding countries of the Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad among others) was caused by some of these actors. The terrorism conservation project in Eastern Congo for the past 20 years is by the UN and which is controlled by some of these actors through the undemocratic structures of that body such as the Security Council. President Museveni further added that “It is amazing how the UN can supervise and coexist with killers of Congolese and Ugandans in Eastern Congo for the last 20 years and they are not bothered at all. They have created free space for all sorts of empty-headed pigs to gather, train, steal resources of Congo, kill Congolese citizens, and once in a while kill Ugandans as well as undermining the economic future of the people of the Great Lakes,” To conclude his statement, The president stated that Uganda would join forces with the DRC government to defeat the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels that have committed multiple crimes in both states.

Now, guess what? When the UN resident coordinator Ms Susan Namondo was contacted to make a statement concerning the accusations by President Museveni, she declined to respond, saying she had not seen the statement and was travelling. Imagine that.

So, what can we glean from the statement of President Museveni? In simple terms, the United Nations which carry themselves as a global policeman, responsible for fighting terrorism, and insecurity and promoting peace in the world, are the same body responsible for creating and preserving the endless cycle of insecurity in the DRC and the Sahel nations including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. It may seem too false to believe that the United Nations may be responsible for creating insecurity in other nations but don’t forget that the leaders of the United Nations are largely made up of Western countries such as France, the US and the UK with a history of protecting their own interests to the detriment of others. Whatever decision is made by the United Nations is largely sanctioned first by the US which has the largest vote and then by other Western countries including France and the UK.

Now, President Museveni did not just wake up one morning to accuse the United Nations of sponsoring terrorism. It is something he has been saying for a long time but nobody has been paying attention until now. In his 2018 State of the Nation Address, President Museveni accused the UN of “preserving” ADF militants in the Congo. He stated that “Rural-based terrorism and 20 banditry was totally defeated, and we built military and intelligence capacity to ensure that Uganda will never be threatened by terrorists operating from the rural areas. He added that ““The terrorists of ADF are still in Congo, preserved there by the UN and the Congo government. If, however, they were to re-enter Uganda, they would be promptly and decisively defeated,” So, you see, President Museveni did not just speak out of turn, and if you think about it, his words do make a lot of sense because how can the United Nations forces be in a country for about twenty years and yet the insecurity still persists. It’s the same thing that happened in Mali. The UN peacekeeping force MINUSMA, was present in the country for ten years until they were kicked out by the Malian junta, Assimi Goita. Yet, in all those years they couldn’t reduce for even a little bit the insecurity, instead, the insecurity crisis increased. It’s the reason why Mali kicked them out.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has more than 120 armed groups, one of which is the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), regarded as a terrorist group, the United Nations peacekeeping forces have been present since 1999. The current peacekeeping force known as the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo also called MONUSCO, an acronym based on its French name, began in the country in 2010, replacing MONUC, The United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the mission’s website, its goals were “protection of civilians, humanitarian personnel and human rights defenders under imminent threat of physical violence” and supporting “the Government of the DRC in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts.” Now, out of all the UN peacekeeping missions in the world, MONUSCO is one of the largest with about twelve thousand, three hundred and seventy nine peacekeepers stationed in the DRC. Not only that, MONUSCO is also one of the costliest with an annual budget of $1 billion.

So, think about it, does it make sense that a mission with this high number of resources both human and financial would not be able to deal with armed rebels who do not have such resources? It doesn’t. You may say that the number of armed rebels is huge, about 120, but get this, when the United Nations peacekeepers first came in 1999, the rebels were just a handful, about 10. However, it was after they came into the DRC, the number of rebels increased to more than 120. So, from a logical point of view, since the number of armed rebels increased after they set foot in the country then we can conclude that President Museveni is right. The United Nations is creating and preserving terrorism in the DRC and by extension in Africa.

When the head of MONUSCO, Bintou Keita, was asked if the mission has failed woefully in the DRC, she said that M23, known as the March 23 Movement, one of the Congolese armed rebels possesses increasingly sophisticated firepower and equipment and poses a formidable threat to civilians. But, the question is how do a bunch of rebels possess sophisticated weapons if they are not backed by a higher power? President Museveni is not the only one who has criticized the UN for its failures. Organizations, experts, and the citizens of the DRC have also blasted the UN so much that there has been a wave of anti-UN sentiments. The Institute for Security Studies, an African research organization, wrote in October last year that “MONUSCO failed to protect the population from attacks by armed militants” which caused protests from the local population. The mission also under-prioritises “political dialogue and a people-centred protection approach to peacekeeping.” A 2014 report also pointed out that missions didn’t respond to 80% of incidents when civilians were attacked in 2010-2013. But even when they did respond, they barely used force.

Human Rights Watch research also confirmed this when they revealed that before an attack which killed 30 civilians, in 2014, a senior Congolese army officer stationed nearby, who had been repeatedly warned and informed of the attack by armed assailants in the village of Mutarule, did not act to stop the killings. Members of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, based 9 kilometers away, were also aware of the attack but did not intervene, and only visited Mutarule two days after the massacre. If they cannot respond even when they were earned before the attack took place then why are they there?. Instead of actually what they came to do in the DRC, which is to protect civilians from attacks by the rebels, some of these peacekeepers spend their time sexually abusing the locals. In October 2023, at least eight UN peacekeepers in the DRC were arrested over allegations of sexual assault. However, these are just the few that have been held accountable.

According to a recent UN report on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, the total number of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse received across the United Nations system in 2020 was 387. But, according to Paula Donovan, head of Code Blue Campaign to end impunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers, there is no accountability. She stated that “Suppose perpetrators of sexual offenses among UN peacekeeping forces are not investigated and brought to account. In that case, that sends a message both to them and to everyone involved in the operations that these are acceptable offenses. Paula also added that “the UN was more concerned about its reputation of peacekeeping and not the victims”. It’s no wonder why the people of the DRC have taken to the streets several times to protest against the UN peacekeepers and demand for their quick exit from the country. Yet, some people still have the guts to say that the Congolese citizens who have been protesting have been manipulated and paid for by politicians as if the people are too dumb to see what is going on.

Now aside from giving the excuse that the rebels have more sophisticated weaponry than them, some analysts say that one of the reasons for the failure of the UN mission in the DRC is the lack of collaboration with the locals. But that doesn’t even make sense because firstly, the UN peacekeepers have been working with the Congolese right from the beginning and the local population was excited initially when the peacekeepers came. The citizens of the DRC saw these peacekeepers as hope. It’s only recently that there have been anti-UN sentiments and demonstrations by the citizens against the presence of the UN forces in their country and you cannot blame them because the truth is the UN forces have failed to achieve any tangible result.

So, this brings us to the question of why the United Nations would be interested in keeping African countries such as the DRC in a perpetual state of insecurity. What’s their motive? Well, it’s simple. A country that is faced with insecurity such as the DRC, Mali, and Burkina Faso would not have time to think about development. Every resource would be focused on dealing with insecurity. Now, think about the fact that the United Nations is made up of Western countries that would prefer to see Africa remain underdeveloped so that Africa would remain dependent on them and they would be seen as the saviors of the continent meanwhile they are only interested in African resources. So, what better way to achieve this than to make sure that African countries remain insecure by paying greedy locals to act as armed rebels and terrorists? Then they would come into the African countries and pretend to fight these rebels not to the point of destroying them completely but ensuring that these rebels can continue to fight over and over again. Have you never wondered why despite the insecurity in African nations, those foreign companies who exploit African resources are never affected? It’s all part of their plan.

Thankfully, some African countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso are waking up and beginning to realize how the West and the UN have been playing them. The only way that African countries with severe insecurity problems would be able to successfully end the insecurity is if they fight it without the aid of any foreign body. This idea that Africa can’t solve its problem is what the West has capitalized on to continue to exploit Africa. It’s time this stops. As we have always said, only Africa can solve its problems.

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