Why the defeat of M23 provides lesson to UN

The United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known in its French acronym, Monusco, is the world’s second most expensive mission with an annual budget of about $1.4 billion. About 61 per cent of this money is used to pay salaries to 23,407 soldiers and supporting staff.

Last year alone, the UN spent about $826 million or 61 per cent of its budget to pay salaries to its soldiers in Eastern Congo at the time when the rogue M23 rebels captured Goma city without any significant resistance.

On average, in 2010/11 every staff member in the peace mission in Eastern DRC was allocated $58,486, which is 254 times the country’s per capita income. From our investigations, $35,088 was spent on salary per every employee, while another $23,398 went to operational cost like medical care, communication, transport, etc, per person. The UN peacekeeping mission – whose personnel President Yoweri Museveni described as a bunch of tourists – has been in DRC for twelve years and during that period about $16.8 billion has been spent on them.

Notwithstanding the heavy spending and the huge number of soldiers deployed, an estimated 5.4 million people died from war-related causes. On top of that, there have been an escalation of war, mushrooming of rebel factions and increase in rape cases, especially in Eastern Congo.But, this week, finally the people of Congo witnessed a new beginning following the defeat of M23 rebels by Congolese army soldiers backed by Southern African Development Intervention Brigade, deployed early this year to boost the UN mission.This should serve as a lesson to the UN whose troops have been there for twelve years without managing to tame the rebels and restore peace despite being heavily funded.

What UN couldn’t accomplish in twelve, long years stay in DRC Congo, has been accomplished by Sadc forces in just nine months!