07 10 13 VoA – DRC Army and UN Peacekeepers Try to Help Displaced Persons

At the Mugunga 3 camp for internally displaced
persons, a few kilometers outside of Goma, more than 16,000 people have sought
refuge from clashes between the Congolese army and M23 rebels.

 
Baraka
Weja Marcel, a refugee in the camp, fled his home in Kibumba, about 20
kilometers from Goma, nearly two years ago. He claims the town is still occupied
by the armed group.
 
Marcel says peace is needed so he and people like
him can go back to their villages. He says life is very difficult in the camp,
where he and six of his relatives live together. Their only shelter is a tent a
few meters long and wide, fashioned from plastic sheeting. Inside, there is a
yellow jug for water, some pots and an old, rusting bicycle. He says that when
it rains, the shelter leaks. His situation is not unusual.
 
The World
Food Program and other partner agencies help the displaced with food, clean
water, sanitation and other basic needs, but their existence is nonetheless
grim. Even in the camp, they are not entirely safe from the threat of armed
groups.
 
In the eastern Congo, the United Nations has a force of 20,000
police and troops, known as MONUSCO. They protect civilians and support the
Congolese army as it builds its capacity and works to take on about 39 different
rebel groups which have been attracted to the region by its wealth of natural
resources and lack of government control.
 
In addition, MONUSCO has been
beefed up with an experimental offensive force called an Intervention Brigade.
It will soon number 3,000 troops; the last contingent is scheduled to arrive
this week. Next month, it will become the first U.N. peacekeeping mission to get
an unarmed drone to help track rebels.
 
Ray Torres, who heads the U.N.
mission's Goma office, said recent successful operations against the M23 have
led to an increase in the number of fighters defecting from its ranks and the
ranks of other armed groups. They also are now more willing to consider peace
initiatives.
 
But as small gains are made, large threats still remain.
Torres says that in North Kivu, the M23 and the FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu group, are
the biggest security threats. He also notes the growing emergence of a third
group, the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, which operates along the
Congo-Uganda border.
 
“[The ADF] is establishing and strengthening its
position in the north of the country. It is very strongly ideologically based.
It is an extremist Islamist group that is developing a network of businesses
that indicates to us that they are planning to stay. And it seems lately,
according to the latest information, that they may be planning operations
against FARDC [the Congolese army],” said Torres.
 
A delegation from the
U.N. Security Council visited the area Sunday. Civil society representatives
told the ambassadors they want more action on ending the recruitment of child
soldiers and on protecting women from sexual violence.
 
They said the
state must extend its control over the whole country, noting that in 75 percent
of the territory in North Kivu is in the hands of different armed groups. They
also demanded that perpetrators be punished and recommended the council
authorize a specialized court for serious human rights violations in
Congo.
 
Baraka Weja Marcel said he hopes the national army and MONUSCO
will be strong enough to chase all the armed groups away, so that peace can come
and he and all the other displaced persons can return home.