WORLD BRIDGE BLOG

I am just getting back to the U.S. after several weeks traveling around the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Matt and I set out at the end of July to identify the priority issues that need to be addressed in the DRC before the UN peacekeeping mission (formerly called MONUC, and now re-named MONUSCO) begins to withdraw.

The peacekeeping mission has – in one form or another- been present in DRC for over a decade. The peacekeepers – military, police and civilians – have been tasked with protecting civilians, supporting the rag-tag Congolese military, developing good governance structures and state authority, and generally bringing stability, security and democracy to a place where all of these things are unfamiliar in the extreme.

Now, after a decade of piecemeal assistance from the UN, international NGOs and donor governments like the U.S., we continue to see headlines screaming out the unthinkable; the hacking to death of three UN peacekeepers, the calculated and systematic rape of over 170 women in just one village. The majority of this huge country may well be stabilizing (relatively speaking), but the eastern region – where this conflict was born – continues to be the eye of this deadly, persistent storm.

Nevertheless, the government of DRC has decided that the time has come for peacekeepers to begin going home. This month the Government of the DRC conducted a joint assessment with the peacekeepers to identify where things are going well, and where security, governance and justice are still the stuff of dreams. This is the first step in a process designed to begin the process of drawing down the mission that – in spite of its failings - has been a key stabilizing force in the DRC for over a decade.

The question now is, “what next”? Obviously, there are big challenges that still need to be overcome before the UN Security Council can make responsible decisions about the withdrawal of the peacekeepers.

1) Reform of the Military:

The first among these is the reform of Congo’s military, the FARDC, which has been expanded in recent years with the signing of peace agreements and the subsequent incorporation of un-trained, un-disciplined militia into the ranks of what is supposed to be a professional army.

To make matters worse, soldiers are often ill equipped, unpaid, and unfed, a fact which often leads them to loot the population for their own survival. I have witnessed first hand FARDC soldiers outfitted in mismatched uniforms and flip-flops, carrying weapons older than I am, and scraping out their survival – often with wives and children in tow – in makeshift encampments off to the side of the road.

In addition to looting FARDC soldiers are often implicated in raping and abusing civilians, but it should be noted that not all of them behave this way. There are some who are known to be working hard to get on with their work under difficult conditions.

Building a professional army takes decades, and the uncoordinated reform efforts of the U.S. and other donor countries have done little to establish any professional standards of behavior or management in this beleaguered force. In our conversations with experts over the past few weeks, however, one common recommendation emerged. Before the FARDC can be properly trained, integrated and equipped, before their families can be cared for and military justice can be properly applied, the government must have somewhere to put them.

Recommendation # 1: Over the next two years the U.S. should commit funding and technical expertise to support the building of proper military barracks.

2) Infrastructure:

The next major challenge to security, justice, economic development, and the provision of services like education and medical care, is the lack of even the most basic infrastructure. In this huge and under-developed country most communities are inaccessible by road for the majority of the year, and huge swathes of the country have no access to phones. In other words, much of the population is entirely cut off from the rest of the country.

It is in communities like this – inaccessible and without means of communicating – that civilians are most vulnerable to attack. Militants are able to prey on civilians with total confidence that no one knows they are there, and that even if they did, help would take days to arrive.

Like the reform of the military, the development of even the most basic infrastructure in a country as large and underdeveloped as the DRC will take decades, but there are key arteries - linking the capital with the east, and linking major hubs - that need to be opened up to get the process moving.

Recommendation #2: The U.S. should invest in the priority infrastructure projects, and particularly in roads - outlined in the Government of DRC’s STAREC plan.

These recommendations are hardly groundbreaking. Congo experts and even casual observers have been talking for years about the need to reform the criminal FARDC and improve access in this sprawling country. The reality, though, is that a decade’s worth of poorly coordinated, badly prioritized interventions have left the international community without much to show for their investment. Now, with time running out for the peacekeeping mission, major donors, including the U.S. must identify common priorities and work together to eliminate barriers to protection, stability and development.