UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced a new head of the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Maman Sambo Sidikou enters the fray of attempting to bring some order in the giant jigsaw puzzle that is the DR Congo, especially its eastern part. Many have been there before him and many left the country the way they found it, if not worse. It is still too early to gauge whether he will succeed where many before him failed, but ultimately, time will tell. The missing link in the Congo fiasco has been goodwill; of both the UN and its envoys. There seem to be a glaring lack of the above and if the UN doesn’t change tact, it will continue to be Mission Impossible. As the head of the world’s largest peacekeeping force, Sidikou should, in normal circumstances, have more than enough power to do his job. But will he have the clout to make New York listen to fulfill its mandate? If he can make the UN to at least attempt to move against the FDRL militia, he will have accomplished something his predecessors failed or refused to do. Coming from the war-torn Somalia, he should be well versed that sometimes it needs brute force to fight evil, the only language FDLR and other negative forces in the Congo seem to understand. The time for resolutions and other unfulfilled promises is long gone. Action is needed urgently to deal with the Congo crisis, concrete action. As Sidikou enters the scene, it would only be fair to wish him the best of luck.
