Blue Helmets in eastern Congo: Unloved, but still needed

The Blue Helmet mission in eastern Congo is certainly not considered a success, according to President Félix Tshisekedi's assessment. The MONUSCO peacekeepers, part of one of the largest, longest, and most expensive in UN history, are unpopular with the local population. Its successes are barely measurable, Tshisekedi has emphasized repeatedly since taking office as President of the DR Congo in 2019.

Tshisekedi has urged the United Nations to prepare for the step-by-step withdrawal of the Blue Helmets from his country. The withdrawal had been decided: the Blue Helmets already withdrew from South Kivu in June 2024. North Kivu and Ituri provinces were scheduled to follow this year.

However, the M23 rebels' offensive in North Kivu has evidently led to a shift in the Congolese government's stance. Kinshasa has become more cautious: "The withdrawal of the Blue Helmets must happen in a responsible manner", said DR Congo's Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner in a DW interview at the end of 2024.

By the time of this interview, a military offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23 group was already becoming evident. Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner's foresighted words: "We do not want the risks and security problems that will increasingly occur in North Kivu to be worsened by a hasty withdrawal of MONUSCO troops."

UN seeks pathways for stabilization

The UN Security Council addressed the issue in a special session on Tuesday (January 28, 2025) in New York. During the session, the deputy head of the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO, Vivian van de Perre, urged the international community to act. According to her, the humanitarian situation in North Kivu is catastrophic, and the suffering is unimaginable. There is an urgent need for a "coordinated international approach".

While the extension of MONUSCO's mandate was not directly under discussion, one thing was clear: the international community could not simply withdraw from North Kivu and leave the people there to fend for themselves.

"The MONUSCO soldiers help us get better information about the movements of Rwandan troops in the area," emphasized the Congolese foreign minister. The reports from MONUSCO provide independent information to UN bodies about what is happening in the conflict zones. In other words, given the M23 rebels' offensive, Kinshasa, contrary to earlier statements, now supports, at least temporarily, the presence of MONUSCO in eastern Congo.

MONUSCO troops didn't defend Goma

This is exactly what Martin Kobler is now calling for in an interview with DW. The former German diplomat led the UN mission in Congo from 2013 to 2015. He holds the decision of the UN Security Council to gradually withdraw MONUSCO responsible for last week’s debacle, when the M23 was able to take over Rwanda. "New York bears much of the failure and the blame," says Kobler – and he demands: "I clearly believe that this withdrawal decision must be reversed."

Nevertheless, Kobler argues that the peacekeepers, who are still present with around 10,000 soldiers, including a 3,000-strong intervention brigade with a robust mandate, should have intervened. He recalls that in 2013, they had formed a ring around Goma together with Congolese troops: "That worked back then. And it would have worked this time as well – if the political decision had been made."

From Kinshasa’s perspective, the record of the MONUSCO peace mission still falls far short of expectations, says Tim Glawion, an expert on international security policy. "The Congolese government saw a rebellion emerging through the M23 and hoped that MONUSCO soldiers would protect Goma. But that didn’t happen."

Once again, the expectations of the population, as well as the government in Kinshasa, for the peacekeepers were disappointed, Glawion states, who recently published an articlebased on years of research about military interventions in crisis zones.

Glawion concludes: "If UN peace missions fail to protect people from armed militias, people get frustrated and begin to question or even protest against these missions." And not infrequently, the governments of the affected countries feel inclined to replace peacekeepers with private mercenaries from abroad, as happened in Mali and the Central African Republic, where Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group were hired, Glawion told DW.

Are private mercenaries more effective than Blue Helmets?

The Democratic Republic of Congo also hired mercenaries from abroad: Nearly 300 Romanian mercenaries were reportedly in eastern Congo until recently. The Romanians were part of a mercenary group led by Horațiu Potra, a businessman who also provides bodyguards for the right-wing presidential candidate Călin Georgescu.

In Congo, they were hired by a local security company called "Congo Protection" to fight the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel militia. However, their efforts were unsuccessful, as it has now become clear. Since January 30, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been organizing the evacuation of the mercenaries from Goma, through Kigali to Bucharest.

Tim Glawion believes that mercenaries are not necessarily more effective in fighting armed groups. "In Maliand the Central African Republic, Russian mercenaries were initially welcomed with enthusiasm, but I doubt that enthusiasm still holds because the Russian mercenaries committed atrocities against the population. The rebels they originally pushed back are now retaking cities in Mali and the Central African Republic, so it wasn't a long-term solution."

It remains clear: The MONUSCO peacekeeping force has, in contrast to most mercenary groups, remained very passive over the years and has done very little to resist the M23 rebels in recent weeks. MONUSCO actually has a "robust" mandate: the soldiers are not only allowed to defend themselves but also to take offensive action against militias in order to secure peace.

Critics argue that the countries involved in the mission should have interpreted their mandate more aggressively to push back the armed groups and protect civilians. This, they say, has been egregiously neglected.

Frejus Quenum contributed to this article.