The violent conflict in the DRC, in which two BSF personnel were killed

The violent conflict in the DRC, in which two BSF personnel were killed

Subject :International Relations

Section: Mapping

Context: Two Border Security Force personnel who were part of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), were among the 15 people who were killed during the violent protests in the city of Butempo on Tuesday

• The DRC has witnessed a decades-long conflict between state forces and rebel groups that has resulted in the death and displacement of millions of people. The UN, which has deployed peacekeeping forces in the country since 1999, is routinely criticised by locals for being unable to protect civilians from the militias in the region.
• India has contributed more personnel to UN Peacekeeping Missions than any other country. Since 1948, more than 2,53,000 Indians have served in 49 of the 71 missions across the world.

Latest Conflict

• The DRC’s army is engaged in battle with more than 100 armed militias that are jockeying for power and territory in the eastern part of the country, and violence has escalated over the past few months. Chief among them is the M23 rebel group, which has been able to take control of key territories, and in June it captured the town of Bunagana located on the Ugandan border towards the east.
• DRC’s eastern region holds massive reserves of valuable minerals such as gold, diamond, copper, zinc, tin, cobalt and coltan, worth an estimated $24 trillion, according to the think tank Council on Foreign Relations. Rebel groups are aiming to control these resources to buy weapons and recruit more fighters.
• In June, the DRC topped the Norwegian Refugee Council’s list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises in 2021

M23 Group

• The rebel group known as M23, short for the March 23 Movement, refers to the date of failed peace accords signed in 2009 between the DRC government and the rebel group known as the National Congress for the Defence of People (CNDP). After claiming that the terms of the deal were not followed by the DRC government, the CNDP members formed the M23 movement.
• The rebel group primarily consists of ethnic Tutsis, and they claim to defend the interests of people of Rwandan ancestry in eastern DRC, especially against the Hutu rebels associated with the 1994 Rwanda genocide

UN Peacekeeping

• UN Peacekeeping began in 1948 when the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of UN military observers to the Middle East.
• UN Peacekeeping helps countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace.
• It deploys troops and police from around the world, integrating them with civilian peacekeepers to address a range of mandates set by the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the General Assembly.

Composition:

• UN peacekeepers (often referred to as Blue Berets or Blue Helmets because of their light blue berets or helmets) can include soldiers, police officers, and civilian personnel.
• Peacekeeping forces are contributed by member states on a voluntary basis.
• Civilian staff of peace operations are international civil servants, recruited and deployed by the UN Secretaria

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC):

• The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located in sub-Saharan Africa, bordered to the northwest by the Republic of the Congo, to the north by the Central African Republic, to the northeast by South Sudan, to the east by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, and by Tanzania , to the south and southeast by Zambia, to the southwest by Angola, and to the west by the South Atlantic Ocean and the Cabinda exclave of Angola.
• By area, it is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world
• The DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt ore, and a major producer of copper and diamonds