• Accueil  >
• En direct partout dans le monde
 > Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Final Stretch

Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Final Stretch

Sitting on the plane from Frankfurt to Ottawa, it hits me that our two week adventure is coming to an end. We are both exhausted, but satisfied. If someone would have told us three weeks ago how it would have unfolded, I doubt we would have believed them. We couldn’t have asked for more…it was our best scenario multiplied by 10! Everywhere we went we were treated with utmost respect and the generosity and support was more than we could have asked for.

Our brief, but intense time in the DRC made us realize a number of things, not in the least that MONUSCO plays a very important role in working towards the stabilization of the country. We met numerous individuals, some more optimist than others; however, all portrayed a strong desire to see the mission succeed, even if such success should come at a price. Whether it is time, money, or human lives, this price is indeed inevitable. At a cost of 1.2 billion per year, MONUSCO is the most costly UN mission ever to be deployed, and with close to 20,000 uniformed personnel on the ground, it is also the largest. Over and over, we heard about the need for greater financial, material and human resources if MONUSCO is to make a real difference in people’s lives. While this support is indeed necessary, MONUSCO can only go so far without a strong political commitment by all parties to put an end to the conflict. Indeed, MONUSCO is caught in a very difficult position, having been provided, as part of its mandate, with both the carrot and the stick. In the context of the DRC, protection of all civilians may in fact be a “mission impossible,” regardless of the resources that are involved. While this is not to say that protection is not feasible and every effort should be made to protect civilians, protection alone cannot be the one benchmark on which the mission is judged. Still, our discussions highlighted a number of key areas where improvements could be made, notably in terms of pre-deployment training and in-mission training, to ensure a good understanding of the mission area and its various components and actors, as well as of the different strategies and mechanisms developed to ensure the implementation of the mandate.

As our trip draws to a close, we would like to thank the Canadian embassy in Kinshasa as well as the UNPOL senior management team in Kinshasa for their endless logistical and programmatic support. We would also like to thank the UNPOL sections in Goma and Bukavu for accepting to receive us and for coordinating meetings and providing logistical support. In Ottawa, we would like to thank the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) and the Department of National Defence (DND) for being instrumental in the organisation of our trip, as well as the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre’s DFAIT-funded Francophonie and Latin America Peacekeeping Capacity Building Projects for their financial support. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to everyone we met for agreeing to share their views and perspectives on the mission. We have also formed new friendships, which we hope will remain.

‘Til next time,

-Kristine and Martin, membres du personnel du Centre Pearson pour le maintien de la paix