This Usalama Briefing Paper sets out the history of UN involvement in the eastern DRC and analyses the challenges that continue to face the mission, even as it prepares to deploy a new intervention brigade, charged with neutralizing and disarming rebel groups and bolstering Congolese state reform. It’s key findings are:
- The UN’s ability to play a constructive role in the Congo has been constrained by the absence of a credible political process to which the parties are committed, and by the international community’s selective and inconsistent engagement in the country.
- MONUC’s pro-government bias eroded both its legitimacy and its acceptability as an honest political arbiter; this has been inherited by MONUSCO.
- As the UN implements its new mandate and the proposed ‘intervention brigade’ is deployed, it should be borne in mind that peace operations can never be a substitute for an effective political process.
