For the past eight months, a rebel group called M23 has been causing trouble in the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They claim to be fighting to improve Congo’s struggling democracy, though reports claim that they are being led by none other than Bosco Ntaganda, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court.
M23 is comprised mainly of disenchanted soldiers from previous rebellions who were added into the Congolese army. In April, many of these soldiers seceded from the Congolese army after claims that they weren’t being treated fairly or equally by the Congolese government.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in the region, MONUSCO, has been criticized for their lack of organization in dealing with M23. There are currently close to 20,000 UN troops in the DRC, but the country is deceptively large, and the UN presence has been spread thin, making it difficult to resist M23 and other rebel groups throughout the nation.
To complicate matters even more, the government of Rwanda – and to a less extent, Uganda as well – has been accused of backing the rebel army. Rwanda shares a border with DRC, and ethnic tensions going back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide are quiet, but still evident among those living there. A recent UN Security Council resolution passed on the matter threatened sanctions against any outside actors supporting M23.
While M23 is not tied to Joseph Kony and the LRA, these issues stretch already limited resources like UN peacekeepers and humanitarian aid, and we still believe that it is important to share information about the difficulties faced by those living in central Africa. As global citizens, we better understand the fabric of humanity by studying and learning about our brothers and sisters across the world.
Image Credit: Reuters
To learn more about M23, visit these links: BBC / Al Jazeera
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