Source: www.persecution.org
Date: March 3, 2024
DRC (International Christian Concern) — The United Nations peacekeeping mission to the violence-ridden Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUSCO, began to pull out of the country last week, according to a statement by the force. MONUSCO has worked in the country for more than 13 years and before the drawdown boasted nearly 18,000 personnel including about 14,000 armed troops.
Despite rampant insecurity and the inability of the Congolese government to quell violence from the approximately 120 armed groups fighting for power and territory, especially in the country’s north and east, the UN mission has become increasingly unpopular with Congolese government leaders in recent years. In December, the UN Security Council approved the withdrawal after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi requested a fast-tracked withdrawal some months earlier.
The first phase of withdrawal will be focused on bases in South Kivu province, to be handed over to Congolese forces before May. Two later phases will see UN troops leave North Kivu and Ituri provinces. In a statement last week, MONUSCO said that it planned to complete the withdrawal nationwide by the end of December 2024, one year after the withdrawal was approved.
Ongoing violence in DRC has displaced 6.9 million civilians, including 2.3 million in North Kivu and 1.6 million in Ituri, according to a 2023 UN report.
The United States recently criticized Congolese government forces for their support of the FDLR, an armed ethnic group fighting in the region. “The United States has been consistent in denouncing the collaboration between elements of the Congolese armed forces and UN- and U.S.-sanctioned armed actors, including the FDLR,” Ambassador Robert Wood, the deputy permanent representative of the United States to the UN, said in a statement.
The government of nearby Rwanda supports M23, another violent terrorist group causing death and violence in the region. It was also found to have used surface-to-air missiles to fire on MONUSCO air assets. “The fact that Rwanda, a major troop contributor to UN peacekeeping, would take such hostile action against a UN mission is deeply unsettling,” said Ambassador Wood, calling it “cause for serious evaluation by the international community.”
The United Nations Security Council recently sanctioned the leaders of five armed rebel groups. The list of those sanctioned includes two leaders of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a notorious terrorist group guilty of continued violence against civilians, including vulnerable Christian communities in DRC.
On the same day as the UN announcement was made, local authorities and civil society leaders announced that the ADF had conducted attacks in the eastern Ituri and North Kivu provinces, killing at least 24 civilians including women and children. ADF is among the most powerful armed groups, even advancing on Goma, the capital of North Kivu and the province’s largest city.
Christians in northern and eastern DRC are particularly vulnerable to extremist terror groups. Though the Congolese government is pushing back against some of groups, insufficient attention is paid to Christian communities, which are targeted for their differing religious beliefs.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the DRC in 2022, highlighting its importance for regional stability. In a press statement ahead of his visit, Secretary Blinken’s office said that the meetings during the trip would highlight past, present, and future partnerships between the U.S. and DRC and consider how the two countries can better partner to advance issues like conservation and human rights. Though the press release did not mention religious freedom, it did repeatedly bring up the issue of rights violations in eastern DRC.
Shortly before his trip, in June 2022, Secretary Blinken expressed his support for international religious freedom, saying at an event that religious freedom is “a vital foreign policy priority.” Quoting former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Blinken said that “those nations are stronger, and the lives of their people richer, when citizens have the freedom to choose, proclaim, and exercise their religious identity.”
HOW TO PRAY: Pray for stability for the DRC during this period of transition. Pray for protection for the nation’s Christian community. Pray for the gospel to spread throughout the DRC.