Search

An official end to one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II came in 2003, with the formation of the transitional government in the Democratic Republic of Congo, organizing free and fair elections, the withdrawal of foreign troops, and the introduction of the demilitarization process. Despite sporadic violence, a fragile peace has held since the formal end of the war. However, the national government continues to not have real control over large parts of the country, and tension remains high in the eastern regions, specifically in the Kivus and Ituri. The current challenge to peace and the overall demilitarization process is the rise of dissident militia groups, who were not signatories to the Sun City Accords and the Dar-es-Salaam Accords. Currently, the presence of fifteen armed groups and militias, totally well over 23,000 combatants, will pose a significant threat to the peace process in the DRC, as well as potentially destabilizing the Great Lakes region. The various Congolese and foreign armed groups/militias in the Kivus and Ituri regions of eastern DR Congo range from highly organized groups such as FNI, FPRI and FDLR, to factionalized groups such as MRC, Group of 47 and Monorovia Group, and informal groups such as the Mayi Mayi, as well as renegade elements present in the Congolese army, such as the 81st/83rd brigades in North Kivu. These groups are held together by coercion, violence and a strong leader, while also espousing a specific ethnic configuration, and incentives such as resource exploitation and taking advantage of the local populations. The objective of this paper is to provide a contextualized understanding of these ‘dissident’ militia groups, including their motivations, strategies, organizational structure, and alliances with domestic, regional and international actors. As well, the local context cannot be divorced by the prevalence of armed groups and militias, as weak state/security apparatuses, insecurity and impunity, resource exploitation and arms trafficking all reinforce the presence and strength of such armed actors. The paper will also critique the on-going demilitarization process in the country, while also providing proactive policy options. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frantz Fanon once remarked that Africa is shaped like a revolver, and the Congo is its trigger; therefore, whoever controls the trigger controls Africa. Since 1998, the battle for Africa?s trigger has been resumed in earnest. The endemic violence experienced during the DRC conflict has left a human debris of tragic and disastrous proportions, claiming the lives of 4 million people, half of them children; 2.3 million internally-displaced persons (IDPs); and the systematic use of sexual violence which has played a devastating role in spreading the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Despite numerous coup attempts, sporadic violence, and the repeated delay of the general elections, a fragile peace has held since the formal end of the war. However, the government has no real control over large parts of the country, and tension remains high in the eastern regions (specifically Ituri and the Kivus). Despite a peace deal and the formation of a transitional government in 2003, the threat of violence and war remains. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to assess the post-conflict environment, including a critical analysis of the political transition (2003-ongoing), and clearly identifying the challenges and prospects for durable peace in the DRC. This will enable an understanding of whether the political transition and post-conflict peace-building initiatives actually addressed and ameliorated the root causes of the conflict. The post-conflict reconstruction activities to be assessed in this paper are: power-sharing arrangements and political cooption/inclusion; the first multi-party elections since 1960 to be held in June 2006; demilitarization of ex-combatants, specifically those in eastern DRC; and social and human development, specifically poverty alleviation, HIV/AIDS prevention and refugee/IDP repatriation initiatives. This assessment will hopefully lead to some proactive policy recommendations on overcoming some of the challenges facing the post-conflict reconstruction process. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]