The UN’s peacekeepers are under pressure to quit Congo
The peacekeeping mission has struggled to bring peace, but leaving could make things even worse
ON THE EDGE of Beni, a city in north-eastern Congo, a field is strewn with bricks and broken glass. Three Malawian soldiers, working for the UN’s peacekeeping mission, known as MONUSCO, lounge under a tree amid the rubble. It is all that is left of MONUSCO’s offices after they were burned down in November by locals furious that the mission had failed to protect them from rebels. “We have suffered years of massacres,” says one of those who took part in the burning. “We see UN soldiers all over town, but when the rebels are killing us they never come.”
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Blue helmet blues”
Middle East & Africa September 5th 2020
From the September 5th 2020 edition
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