Middle East & Africa | To fight or not to fight

Can Kenya bring peace to eastern Congo?

Not if Rwanda can help it

Members of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) deployed as part of the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) ride in a vehicle in Goma, in eastern Congo Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. Elections, coups, disease outbreaks and extreme weather are some of the main events that occurred across Africa in 2022. Experts say the climate crisis is hitting Africa “first and hardest.” Kevin Mugenya, a senior food security advisor for Mercy Corps said the continent of 54 countries and 1.3 billion people is facing “a catastrophic global food crisis” that “will worsen if actors do not act quickly.” (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) — Image: AP

Feb 2nd 2023|NAIROBI

For people living in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, foreign soldiers generally come in two types, the larcenous and the feckless. Neighbouring armies have mostly been responsible for the larceny, periodically plundering eastern Congo’s vast mineral riches ever since Rwanda and Uganda first invaded in 1996. By contrast, the fecklessness has worn a blue helmet: the UN mission in Congo, one of the most expensive ever mounted, has proved singularly ineffective at stanching the anarchy that has forced 5m people from their homes and is impoverishing a region of more than 100m people.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “In it to win it?”