The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) convened today in the hopes of tackling the issue of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (MONUSCO) ending mandate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the future of conflict in the region, however, none of these issues were solved due to the inability for delegates to come to a consensus.
Council started with discussing the issue of rebel groups in control of an ebola based bio weapon However, this quickly spiraled into unproductive debate with delegates bringing up impossible solutions. Furthermore, this issue should not have been discussed in the first place as the problem of ebola falls under the jurisdiction of the WHO instead of the UNSC. Many of the delegates in the UNSC were unable to recognise this problem and those who did were unable to convince the majority to reconsider their choice of topics.
However, although many of the delegates were unable to stick to the task at hand, there was no delegate more misguided than the delegate of America. The delegate of America first proposed to freeze the assets of the rebels in order to limit their capabilities and gain leverage to be used in future negotiations. This impossible solution received great criticism from not only the press but also the other delegates in council. From an interview conducted with the delegate of Peru, the delegate of america’s plan to freeze the assets of the rebels was extremely inefficient due to the immense logistical needs and tracking of the transfer and travel of money in the region. This plan is simply impossible, not only because of its immense logistical needs but also because of the lack of sufficient manpower and MONUSCO’s current mandate which ends later this year. MONUSCO’s current mandate ends on the 20th of December 2019 after remaining in the region for nearly a decade. Furthermore, MONUSCO has been facing budget cuts and thus undertaking such a widespread and large scale solution such as freezing the assets of the rebels will not be feasible.
Additionally, some delegates also called for the increase of troops deployed to the DRC which is simply illogical because of MONUSCO’s ending mandate and budget cuts. This call for an increase in troops comes at a time when MONUSCO’s mandate is targeted at power through projection. Through this, less ground troops are being deployed with more resources being used for surveillance and coordination purposes. Hence the proposal to increase the amount of troops was unjustified as it deviates from the current aims of MONUSCO.
Moving on, the council also failed to tackle the issue of enabling the long term self sustainability of the DRC which was one of the main issues they agreed to resolve in today’s council session. Unfortunately, this issue was only touched on briefly by the delegate of Russia, after which it was quickly forgotten and put aside. This blatant disregard for the most pressing topic shows the inability of the UNSC to cooperate and come to a consensus on the actions needed to be taken in order to mitigate the problem. Furthermore, by ignoring this issue, the UNSC has put the DRC at risk of even more rebel attacks and instability, possibly further worsening the already dire situation in the region. Without the ability to sustain and protect themselves in the long run, the DRC would quickly fall to not only the rebel threat but also to internal conflict and security threats.
Another issue brought up in council was the need for stricter and more efficient border patrols on the border between the DRC and Uganda with delegates proposing innovative ideas combining the use of physical and technological barriers to increase security along the border of these countries. However, in doing so, delegates neglected the borders the DRC shares with other neighbouring nations such as its borders with Angola and Zambia. This neglection of the DRC’s other borders could prove to be a deadly mistake as the rebels and their bio weapons have the possibility to spread to other neighbouring nations and not just Uganda.
Therefore, in light of these developments in the UNSC, the council was largely ineffective in not only tackling the issues faced by the DRC but also taking into consideration the views of both the DRC and the rebels. Without these, the UNSC was clearly unable to effectively and efficiently resolve the conflict and lingering problems in the region, paving the way for even more problems to arise further down the road.
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