Yet another former rebel has decided to call it quits and abandon the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) because of failing health.

Major Jean Pierre Ndayambaje was brought to the Rwandan border by a MONUC ambulance, as yet another notch on the UN agency’s pad of voluntary repatriations.

It has been said several times that MONUC has failed in its mission to disarm and repatriate Rwandan rebels holed up in the eastern DRC, and whenever they have managed to "convince” a few to return to their motherland, they have bloated their figures with non-combatants and none Rwandans, just to make their statistics look good to the powers that be in New York who hold the strings to the purse.

The over $ 1 billion annually spent on the mission should by now be showing positive results, but no, if their mission was successful, the financial tap would run dry, and no UN employee would relish hitting the pavements of his  or her home city hounding employment agencies.

The DRC crisis is a milking cow for tens of thousands who will not willingly give up their perks by , that is why there is always some committee, or fact finding mission, ready to be unleashed with pre-conceived reports that will make their continued presence a necessity.

Yes. MONUC has become a necessity to the likes of our brother Ndayambaje, without which he could have succumbed to his illness in the absence of medical care.

But despite MONUC’s numerous shortcomings, it should at least look up with pride, that its ambulance services is the only department that is fulfilling its mandate- It is saving lives.

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