MONUSCO’s fatal imbroglio: Taking stock of Bintou Keïta’s tenure

Under Bintou Keïta, the UN mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO) increasingly veered from its civilian-protection assignment and tolerated government-aligned abuses, raising significant doubts about its neutrality and role in the troubled east of the country, according to experts. Political analysts especially argue that her leadership deepened long-standing flaws within the UN mission. ALSO READ: MONUSCO chief ignores root cause of Congo conflict, says Amb. Karega “Ultimately, it is clear that MONUSCO has acted as a multinational business corporation rather than a UN peacekeeping mission,” said Great Lakes conflict researcher and analyst Bojana Coulibaly. Under Keïta’s leadership, she said, the mission “profited from conflict, from extreme violence and the ethnic cleansing of Congolese Tutsi,” while advancing the private interests of some Security Council members seeking access to DR Congo’s minerals. ‘An expensive farce’ Appointed in January 2021 to succeed Algeria’s Leïla Zerrougui as head of the UN peacekeeping mission, Keïta, a Guinean diplomat, is – as reported – preparing to step down, prematurely. Her term officially ends in February 2026. On November 12, Radio Okapi, the UN radio in DR Congo, reported that her departure, scheduled for the end of November 2025, was a personal decision. The UN radio reported that in a document, the mission specified that no internal investigation or disciplinary proceedings concern the Special Representative. Nonetheless, experts contend that the controversies surrounding Keïta’s tenure reflect deeper structural issues within the UN mission which guzzles close to $1 billion every 12 months. ALSO READ: The UN’s wilful blindness in DR Congo’s endless crisis In January, genocide researcher Tom Ndahiro wrote that under her stewardship, the UN mission “has become an expensive farce.” According to Ndahiro, Keïta’s public declarations, crafted with the finesse of a spin doctor, distract from the root causes of DR Congo’s endless misery. And for Coulibaly, Keita’s leadership did not only mirror MONUSCO’s historic failings – it entrenched them. For more than two decades, the mission’s failure to implement a mandate it was entrusted with – the eradication of all armed groups, including FDLR which has operated with total impunity in eastern DR Congo for the past three decades, is a major highlight. Consistently identified as a significant and ongoing security threat to Kigali and the region, FDLR is a Kinshasa-backed militia formed by remnants of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Integrated into the Congolese army coalition which is battling the AFC/M23 rebels, the genocidal militia joined forces with Kinshasa’s allies, with a plan to attack Rwanda. ALSO READ: Peacekeeping missions ‘at crossroads,’ need a rethink – experts Independent political scientist Frederick Golooba-Mutebi emphasised that the mission’s failures manifested long before Keïta came into the picture but intensified under her watch. “By the time MONUSCO arrived, in 1999, there were about 10 militia groups. Today, they exceed 200. That alone shows the mission has failed,” Mutebi said. The history of UN missions in the country began with the UN Operation in the Congo (ONUC) in 1960. After decades, the UN authorized the United Nations Organization Mission in DR Congo (MONUC) in 1999. In 2010, MONUC was transformed into MONUSCO with an expanded mandate, which continues today. Unfortunately, the three missions consistently failed to protect civilians from armed groups and to stabilize the nation. ALSO READ: Dag Hammarskjöld’s death and the UN’s long failure in DR Congo It is one of the UN’s longest and most expensive peace operations, with more than $25 billion spent in just over two decades. Despite this, its legacy, particularly under Keïta, has become increasingly tarnished due to, among other reasons, its ineffectiveness in protecting civilians from rampant armed group violence, and accusations of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. Mutebi explained: “Local militias have attacked villages and killed people within short distances of MONUSCO bases. The forces stay barricaded in their camps and emerge only after the damage is done. ALSO READ: Former FDLR deputy president on how genocidal militia was formed “There are testimonies from surrendered FDLR combatants describing how they were armed by MONUSCO or worked alongside FARDC and MONUSCO. MONUSCO knew FDLR was the force threatening Rwanda's security, but did nothing.” ‘Safer to condemn AFC/M23, Rwanda than offend host government’ Mutebi stressed that Keïta’s vocal condemnation of AFC/M23 and Kigali, paired with her consistent silence on the genocidal militia, mirrored a broader institutional posture. “They [MONUSCO] know the truth. But it is safer for them to condemn AFC/M23 and Rwanda than offend the host government,” he said. ALSO READ: Rwanda reiterates Security Council’s need to address root causes of DR Congo crisis Analysts also argue that Keïta’s leadership blurred MONUSCO’s neutrality, noting that she, at times appeared to be more of a spokesperson for the Congolese government than a UN envoy, especially during the escalating conflict in eastern DR Congo. ALSO READ: 80-year-old Congolese reflects on lifetime of injustice, attacks in DR Congo Although mandated to protect civilians and support disarmament, MONUSCO has been faulted for aligning its operations with the Congolese army’s campaign against the AFC/M23 rebel movement. ALSO READ: Ex-FDLR militia fighter speaks out on MONUSCO, FARDC support Civilians continue to die due to attacks by government troops and allied forces across eastern DR Congo, including in areas where MONUSCO operates. Jean Baptiste Gasominari, another political analyst closely following the crisis, said that the UN mission has “entirely lost relevance” in DR Congo, particularly in areas held by AFC/M23 rebels. “MONUSCO became overtly one-sided. Under Keïta, you could not distinguish between the Congolese government’s rhetoric and the mission’s position. They had effectively become one,” Gasominari said, explaining that when Kinshasa issued fabricated reports, the mission merely endorsed them, thereby eroding its neutrality and public trust. Through Operation Springbok, a military operation launched in November 2023 by the Congolese army coalition together with UN peacekeepers especially to secure the city of Goma, MONUSCO maintained AFC/M23 as its primary target since, positioning its forces directly against the rebels. “We faced them (MONUSCO) in our battle against the Kinshasa regime,” AFC/M23 spokesperson Oscar Balinda said. “When we ask why they involve themselves in this war and why they abandon neutrality, they say they are mandated to assist the government and its armed forces by all means. “We do not intend to expel them from our controlled zones. But we must determine how we can coexist going forward.” ALSO READ: MONUSCO ignores M23 rebel warning, intensifies support to Congolese army coalition The UN’s Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), created in 2013, was supposed to conduct targeted military operations against armed groups threatening civilian populations. ALSO READ: Why Monusco-FIB, FARDC army will not disarm FDLR However, the brigade’s mandate quickly narrowed exclusively to operations against M23, ignoring other more dangerous militias active in eastern DR Congo such as FDLR, Uganda’s ADF, as well as numerous other Congolese militia groups that continued to wreak havoc. ALSO READ: Peace in DR Congo will only come when Kinshasa addresses FDLR threat – former US diplomat Mistrust peaked The UN peacekeeping missions’ mandates have always been one-sided; supporting Kinshasa and misreporting the crisis, since 1999, “but under Keïta, it has been the worst,” Balinda said. “We confronted them on the front lines, and with their reconnaissance drones they gathered data from the war zones and passed it to Congolese forces. The government’s Sukhoi fighter jets then bombed our areas using that data.” ALSO READ: AFC/M23 says DR Congo’s Sukhoi fighter jet bombed civilians Following years of misrepresentations ranging from forged death tolls to distorted battlefield accounts and biased briefings to the UN Security Council, Keïta visited the rebels’ territory in Goma, on June 13. The visit was described as an effort “to listen,” ahead of her briefing to the Security Council. During the meeting, the rebels presented her with “35 fact points” outlining inaccuracies in MONUSCO’s reporting. The rebels presented discrepancies over the number of deaths during the AFC/M23 capture of Goma, where Keïta had cited about 3,000 fatalities “yet reports by the Red Cross, which we worked with after the fight to collect the dead bodies, confirmed 874.” Keïta offered no clear explanation for the disputed figures and other misrepresentations. However, Balinda said, her subsequent presentation to the Security Council was “less biased” than her earlier briefings. Coulibaly maintained that Keïta’s mandate worsened the failures seen ever since the creation of FIB in 2013. Critics also argue that MONUSCO increasingly aligned itself with anti-Tutsi genocidal campaigns, supported abusive coalitions, and operated in proximity to groups such as FDLR. Killings and burning of villages such as the October 2023 case of Nturo village, in Masisi territory, massacres in Kitchanga, and the near-extermination of more than 17,000 civilians at Bwiza IDP camp, unfolded “under MONUSCO’s watch,” despite its continued logistical and operational support to FARDC coalitions. The peacekeepers also continued to coordinate joint operations with the Congolese government in regions where ADF, a Ugandan terrorist group linked to the Islamic State, and CODECO, a Congolese militia group causing terror in Ituri Province, committed mass atrocities, without protecting any of the targeted communities. “MONUSCO has not been able to protect any civilians in DR Congo,” Coulibaly said. “It has profited from conflict...and advanced the private interests of some Security Council members in Congo’s strategic minerals.” For Coulibaly, the ongoing peace processes, in Washington and Doha, held without MONUSCO demonstrate “the failure of its peacekeeping operation.” ALSO READ: UN report pinpoints FDLR new hierarchy in DR Congo “Nothing justifies its relevance. In over 25 years, it has not improved conditions on the ground. Extending the mandate changes nothing, their reports exist only to justify their presence,” Gasominari said. ‘MONUSCO failed what M23 is doing now’ According to Mutebi, AFC/M23 effectively accomplished tasks the UN failed to achieve in nearly three decades, especially on security threats like the génocidaires from Rwanda. “M23 has done a decent job demobilizing FDLR, capturing combatants, returning them to Rwanda, and pushing the rest far from the border,” he said. “North and South Kivu no longer depend on MONUSCO, or FARDC, for security.” Mutebi suggested that Keita’s departure could be linked to mounting evidence of MONUSCO’s inaction, and collusion with the genocidal militia. He added: “FDLR was operating freely alongside FARDC, sometimes even alongside MONUSCO. The UN forces never attacked them despite promising to do so in 2013. These testimonies from FDLR ex-combatants have emerged under her leadership. Very rarely do MONUSCO failures get reported, and their successes are exaggerated. Remember that after the fall of Goma, international media were claiming that the humanitarian situation in Goma was catastrophic because the UN force was not there and there were no humanitarian groups. ALSO READ: Former Belgian senator tours Goma, challenges Western version of events “But it was not true. Anyone who went to Goma immediately after that city fell found there was no alarming humanitarian situation. People had gone back to their villages and were living in their own homes. The claim that there was a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in eastern DR Congo after Goma and Bukabu fell was a complete lie, which was being disseminated through international media by NGOs that want to come in and make money out of the situation.” In March, after his week-long tour of rebel-held Goma and parts of North Kivu Province, former Belgian Senator Alain Destexhe, a long-time observer of the region, told The New Times that one major difference he noticed was the absence of corruption by the new administrative entities and Police. Previously, he recalled, the local population suffered from extortion and abuse by Congolese authorities. Destexhe said: “I think the M23 made the right decision to ask people to return home, as that’s where they belong. I spoke with several returnees, and most of them were happy to go back to their villages because they felt there was more security now, especially with M23 controlling the area.” Asked what could, possibly, finally bring peace to eastern DR Congo, Mutebi said the international community should stop pretending that forces like MONUSCO make a difference, or that they can be depended on to stabilize conflict situations. “They are not designed to deal with matters of that kind effectively. I can say without any fear of contradiction that M23 has proven to be a much more superior mechanism for dealing with instability than the UN has been in almost 30 years.” Due to the continued violence in eastern DR Congo, which supposedly made a complete withdrawal impossible, on December 20, 2024, MONUSCO's mandate was extended by the UN Security Council until December 20, 2025. ALSO READ: MONUSCO will leave a trail of failures – experts The original plan was for a full withdrawal by the end of 2024, but that never happened. Analysts believe that MONUSCO might not leave the country any time soon. Earlier, UN Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who visited DR Congo in September 2024, said that December 31, 2024, which was supposed to be the date for the total withdrawal of MONUSCO troops, had never formally been agreed on by all the parties.

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MONUSCO’s fatal imbroglio: Taking stock of Bintou Keïta’s tenure