The UN seems to have picked a side in the ongoing instability in the east of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, which, unfortunately, does not help the situation. During a briefing of the UN Security Council on the situation in DR Congo, a report tabled by MONUSCO, the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the country failed to recognize the genocidal force, FDLR, among the most violent armed groups ravaging the country’s eastern region. FDLR was founded by and still composed of perpetrators of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994. The group continues to wreak havoc in DR Congo, where they mainly target Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese. For nearly three decades, they have committed despicable atrocities against these Congolese where many were hounded out of their homes and have lived in Rwanda as refugees for close to three decades. Numerous reports including by some UN bodies have placed FDLR at the centre of the humanitarian catastrophe in this region but the same UN, in their latest statement failed to name them among the most violent groups. The same happened to DR Congo’s permanent representative in New York, who went as far as calling the group ‘harmless’ and that it has never launched any attack on Rwandan territory in 10 years. Nothing less would have been expected from a Congolese diplomat because verified reports including recently by the UN group of experts gave details of how this virulent militia has been absorbed into the Congolese armed forces, the FARDC. The same report indicated that in exchange for their combat services, the Congolese government had given colossal sums of money to FDLR and supplied their fighters with military equipment, among other incentives. It is therefore surprising that the UN could not use this latest meeting to condemn DR Congo over such sobering revelations to remind the Congolese leadership that the solution to the insecurity problem in their country will not be brought to an end by colluding with militia groups that have been part of the same problems for years. By not calling out the Congolese government on this, the UN is only emboldening them to continue finding scapegoats for their challenges, a game they have mastered, especially since the latest wave of violence started in the eastern region last year. Worse still, the UN failed to condemn the ongoing xenophobia that is targeting the Tutsi community of the Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, despite this having all the hallmarks of a genocide in preparation.
