U.N. seeks to 'neutralize' armed groups in Congo

At the beginning of 2012, more than 1.7 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were internally displaced persons, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. About 72,000 of those refugees were living in "spontaneous camps" where they received UNHCR assistance. /Truls Brekke photo via Global Knowledge

 

With an unprecedented vote in the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, the international organization has authorized a U.N. peacekeeping force to conduct offensive military action for the first time ever to neutralize armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The "intervention brigade" will be deployed in eastern Congo, where armed groups have been killing and terrorizing civilians since the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Ethnically fueled warfare that has raged in Congo since 1998 and has claimed as many as 5 million lives is widely considered one of the legacies of the Rwandan genocide.

The intervention brigade's first target will likely be fighters of the March 23 Movement. In November, M23 rebels took control of Goma in eastern Congo but they retreated under international pressure.

The new U.N. force, which will establish its headquarters in Goma, will have upto 3,000 troops. There are already about 17,700 U.N. peacekeepers and 1,400 international police officers in the central African country.

If the slaughter of millions isn't enough to draw your attention to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's fate, consider its vast natural resources:

• The DRC has some of the richest mineral deposits in the world. The country produces about half of the world's cobalt and huge quantities of tin and tungsten. IHC, a global market and economic information research firm, estimates the total value of the DRC's mineral wealth at $24 trillion.
• About two-thirds of the Congo basin rain forest is within the DRC's borders, according to Greenpeace. Only the Amazon is larger than the Congo basin rain forest, which is home to a wide range of animal and plant species including elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees and medicinal flora. Greenpeace fears a "catastrophic" impact on the global climate if uncontrolled logging in the Congo basin rain forest continues.