UN peacekeeping head meets leaders of rebel coalition in eastern DRC

The head of the UN peacekeeping mission to Congo, MONUSCO, met with the leaders of the new political and military coalition that was formed last month Tuesday.

The Front for the Refoundation of the Nation, or FRN, includes rebel groups formerly united under the Congo River Alliance, among them M23, who control large swaths of land in eastern Congo.

It is led by former president Joseph Kabila, who was sentenced to death in absentia for treason and war crimes last year by a Congolese court.

MONUSCO head James Swan met the former president at his residence in Goma.

After the meeting, FRN vice president Bertrand Bisimwa said they discussed the extension of MONUSCO’s mandate, which is up next month.

“28 years later, when you take stock of MONUSCO's activities, you find that it has been a total failure," he said.

"We think that one more mandate would change absolutely nothing for the situation in the country today. We would have liked the mandate to not be renewed and for MONUSCO to continue their retreat as planned.”

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo in a decades-long conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

It took control of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, as well as other key cities in eastern Congo in a lightning assault last year.

Congo, the United States and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23.

Kabila led Congo from 2001 to 2019.

He took office at the age of 29 after his father and former President Laurent Kabila was assassinated, extending his mandate by delaying elections for two years after his term ended in 2017.

His candidate lost in December 2018 to Kabila’s long-term political rival, Tshisekedi, who has ruled the country since 2019.

Earlier this year, the US government imposed sanctions on Kabila for his alleged role in funding and providing political support to rebel groups operating in the east of his country.