International Crisis Group

Congo demands sanctions on Rwanda, Uganda over rebels | Reuters 

By Jonny Hogg

(Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday demanded targeted sanctions against Rwandan and Ugandan officials accused by a U.N. experts panel of backing a six-month-old insurgency in its volatile eastern borderlands.

The U.N. Security Council’s Group of Experts said in a confidential report seen by Reuters that both Rwanda and Uganda were supporting the M23 rebels, who are expanding their control of parts of Congo’s mineral-rich North Kivu province, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

FULL ARTICLE (Reuters)

Photo: United Nations/Flickr 

Intervention in Eastern Congo a Rising Priority for Activists | AlertNet

Carey L. Biron

As the situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to deteriorate in the wake of an armed rebellion that began in April, some activists have strengthened calls for foreign military intervention.

FULL ARTICLE (AlertNet)

Photo: davehighbury 

African Leaders Discuss Sending Troops Into DRC  |  Voice of America

By Hilary Heuler

KAMPALA — Leaders of Africa’s Great Lakes region are meeting in the Ugandan capital to discuss sending an international force into the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The leaders of the eleven countries that make up the African Great Lakes region gathered in Kampala, Uganda today to address the latest crisis in eastern Congo, where the government has been battling rebel groups for years.

FULL ARTICLE (VOA)

Photo: US Army Africa/Flickr

Black Gold in the Congo: Threat to Stability or Development Opportunity? | International Crisis Group

Kinshasa/Nairobi/Brussels  |   11 Jul 2012

Renewed oil interest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could nurture communal resentments, exacerbate deep-rooted conflict dynamics and weaken national cohesion.

Black Gold in the Congo: Threat to Stability or Development Opportunity?, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, warns of a potential “oil curse” in the still vulnerable country. Oil exploration in the east and the Central Basin could aggravate conflict in the high-risk areas of the Kivus, and feed secessionist tendencies in a context of failed decentralisation and financial discontent between the central state and the provinces. If confirmed, oil discoveries could redefine the country’s geopolitics, and notably question mineral-rich Katanga’s political influence.

“In the context of a general oil rush in Central and East Africa, the lack of clearly defined borders, especially in the Great Lakes region, poses significant risk for maintaining regional stability”, says Marc-André Lagrange, Crisis Group’s Central Africa Senior Analyst. “Oil reserves straddling the country’s borders with Uganda and Angola have already caused tension”.

Eastern DRC is plagued by rebel groups that are already illegally exploiting natural resources, along with the Congolese army. The April 2012 failed mutiny by General Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes since 2006, and the emergence of a new armed group (M23) are illustrations of this longstanding instability. In the west, while offshore oil production for Angola started several years ago, Kinshasa is contesting the definition of maritime borders.

In addition, poor governance has been the hallmark of the oil sector since exploration resumed. Black gold is the main source of government revenue and yet, with exploration in full swing, oil sector reform is several years behind schedule. Instead of creating a transparent legal framework and robust institutions, the previous governments behaved like speculators.

The state’s failure to adequately regulate the diverging and potentially conflicting interests of companies and poor communities is fuelling resentment, which could easily flare up into local violence. Exploration blocks include natural parks and a World Heritage Site.

Regionally, the government should work with neighbouring countries and the African Union to design a management model for cross-border reserves and launch a border demarcation program. Nationally, it should reform the oil sector and declare a moratorium on exploration in unstable areas, especially in the east, and involve provinces in the main management decisions concerning this resource.

“In a context of massive poverty, a weak state, poor governance and regional insecurity, an oil rush will have a strong destabilising effect”, says Thierry Vircoulon, Crisis Group’s Central Africa Project Director. “To avert such a devastating scenario, the government should, at the regional level, favour dialogue with its neighbours to solve border disputes, and, at the national level, regulate oil exploitation to improve governance and accountability”. 

FULL REPORT

UN mission ‘failing to protect DRC civilians’ | The Journal

THE INTERNATIONAL Crisis Group has penned an open letter to the UN Security Council warning of the risk of a major escalation in violence and criticising its mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo of failing in its mandate to protect civilians.

The ICG warns that “history is again repeating itself” in eastern DRC where there is “a risk of serious escalation of violence”.

The group also accuses the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Congo (MONUSCO) of failing in its core mandate of stabilisation and the protection of civilians, saying that the mission’s stabilisation strategy has been too heavily centred on “an expectation that the 2008-2009 rapprochement between DRC and Rwanda was enough to contain the conflict in the Kivus”.

FULL ARTICLE (The Journal)

Photo: Pete Muller/AP