The United Nations must decide today [19.12.2024] on the extension of the mandate of MONUSCO in eastern DRC, North Kivu and Ituri.
The Blue Helmets have a military mission, to help stabilize these regions where armed groups operate and to pacify conflicts between local communities, such as that between Lese and Nande who signed a peace agreement in 2023.
On the other hand, the conflict between the Hema and the Lendu is not resolved, notably with numerous attacks by Codeco militiamen.
But MONUSCO’s mission also includes a civilian component, to help the Congolese population on a daily basis, to displaced people.
This is why Jean Bosco Lalo hopes that MONUSCO’s mandate will be extended in Ituri, his region. Jean Bosco Lalo is the national president of the coordination office of Civil Society-Forces Vives of the DRC and president of the Council of the Apostolate of Lay Catholics of Congo.
Interview with Jean Bosco Lalo (Ituri civil society)
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Follow the interview with Jean Bosco Lalo
Ituri is one of the regions where MONUSCO has worked the most. The few displaced people who still live are around the MONUSCO contingent camps.
…Even if, from time to time, militiamen attack these camps and kill the displaced.
For example, Tuesday [17.12.24]during the day, the largest camp for displaced persons in Rhoe, very close to Blukwa, was attacked by the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco) and they committed a lot of violence: there were deaths. They ransacked the Drodro hospital, so you understand that even MONUSCO is overwhelmed.
In short, the State no longer exists and it is MONUSCO alone with the Blue Helmets which tries to play the auxiliary role of the State.
The DRC supports an extension of the mandate of MONUSCO
DW: Jean-Bosco Lalo, you say that you welcome the presence of MONUSCO in Ituri, and yet, you also say, the Codeco attacks continue. And the state of siege has still not been lifted in your province.
We cannot expect everything from MONUSCO, it will never be able to replace the Congolese government. So, we think that there is a real problem and more and more, the population believes that even the state of siege is complicit with Codeco: every time we talk about lifting or requalification [de l’état de siège]Codeco becomes more active. So public opinion is tempted to believe that the state of siege would be used by Codeco as a means to continue to maintain itself.
In any case, the state of siege has proven its limits and has produced nothing, except to let people be killed, if not to plunder a little money, but otherwise, basically, in any case, the state of siege did nothing.
It really is a white elephant.
