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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Countries respond to call for Congo peacekeepers |
| 2003-05-24 |
| France, South Africa, Pakistan and Nigeria, as well as Canada and Britain, have expressed interest in contributing troops for an international force to help quell fighting in north-east Congo, the UN said yesterday. Will wonders never cease? The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has appealed for a multinational armed force for Bunia, the capital of north-east Congo's Ituri province. By UN estimates, the Ituri conflict has killed 50,000 and displaced another 500,000 since 1998. Aid groups estimate that the war in Congo has killed 3.3 million, most through famine and disease. About 800 Uruguyan UN troops already are at Bunia to protect UN observers and property. The goal of further deployments would include the disarming and demobilisation of combatants. This suggests that the US will be involved: we're about the only ones with the heavy lift capacity to get a brigade-sized force of peacekeepers, with the attendant logistics train, into the deep Congo. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 It would be hard to find a region of the world more difficult to get to, considering the distance from Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the deteriorated infrastructure in the region. I doubt there will be much more that a token force there anytime soon. Considering that most of these militias and the ones active in surrounding areas are armed by the governments of Uganda, DRC and Rwanda as part of a 3 way war, it might be better for all of these countries to put presure on them to restrain the rabble. Rwanda and Uganda are close African allies of the United States, so there is a roll that you can play without too much difficulty. |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2003-05-24 02:16:01 |