The new UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was shocked when it received news on 12 August this year of the rape and assault of at least 154 Congolese civilians during an attack by two armed groups on the town of Luvungi in North Kivu province. The new mission, with a strong mandate to protect civilians and use force if needed, raised the hopes that the actions of the renamed United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) will change for the better as to the Protection of Civilians.

It is alleged that Rwandan Hutu Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) insurgents and Mai Mai militia executed the attacks. This all happened with a mobile operational base of 80 UN soldiers deployed 16 kilometers away in Kibua. The UN peacekeepers report that although they knew of the movement of the Mai Mai militia and FDLR insurgents in the area since the end of July, the incidents of rape was only reported to them on 12 August.

The number of people treated for rape stands now on 242. Aid agencies say that the UN and the Congolese army FARDC were warned of the activities of the rebels and militia and did not act. Exchange of gunfire between MONUSCO, and the FDLR and Mai Mai was however reported. This was not a coordinated effort and MONUSCO did not have detail on the operations of the FARDC.

The incident sparked reaction from the United Nations Security Council and on 25 August the Council held an emergency session to discuss and condemn widespread rape in eastern Congo. "We are horrified, and we are outraged. This led us, in conjunction with the French, to request this detailed briefing this morning," said Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, on Thursday. "It was a disturbing briefing, both for what we learned and what we still don`t know." The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon in the meantime dispatched his Assistant for peacekeeping operations Mr. Atul Khare to DRC to work with Roger Meece, his Special Representative in the country. Mr Khare has already arrived in the country and is currently visiting the Eastern part of the DRC.

This incident must be seen against a history of attacks against the population in DRC ranging from assault, kidnapping and rape by the FARDC, FDLR and militia groups and accusations that the previous UN Mission (MONUC) and now the new mission MONUSCO do not implement the mandate to protect civilians.

This must be seen against the fact that the Security Sector Reform and Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration process has not been completed leaving the government with an ineffective police, military and judicial system.

The FARDC is one of the biggest perpetrators of attacks against civilians. This makes it very difficult to execute its constitutional task to protect its citizens, but placing a burden on the UN mission MONUSCO to do it. To complicate things, the Government of the DRC wants the UN to withdraw its mission on the perception that its security forces will be able to ensure peace and stability, an assumption that seems wrong.

Where does it leave MONUSCO? The mission has a mandate to protect civilians and it is expected from the population and the international community to implement its mandate. Because of criticism, the previous mission, MONUC and the new mission MONUSCO has established an practical handbook for the protection of civilians as well as protection of civilian teams consisting of military, police and civilian personnel to be deployed in volatile areas to gather information in an effort to prevent such attacks or to mitigate it from happening.

The question raised in the Security Council of why the UN peacekeepers did not protect the civilians in Luvungi has been raised many times before in Goma, Bukavu etc. Can this situation be changed? Many lessons learned were noted over the last 10 years in the DRC, including leadership on all levels, clear guidelines on all levels on the implementation of the mandate and the rules of engagements, as well as the deployment of troops that are willing to use force in terms of the existing chapter 7 mandate. It is maybe time for the new mission to implement them.

Written by: Henri Boshoff, Head Peace Missions Programme, ISS Pretoria