This week we are posting the first of a two part series on humanitarian intervention and international involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Father Dr. Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula of HIPSIR. In this piece, he discusses the Humanitarian Conference on DRC which took place earlier this year in Geneva and responses by the Congolese government on the representation of the crisis and suffering. Stay tuned for the second half of this piece later this week, and as always, we welcome your comments!
By: Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, S.J., PhD
A new crisis that isn’t so new
On April 13, 2018, the UN Office of the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the European Union (EU), and the Kingdom of the Netherlands convened a meeting of donors in Geneva to mobilize funds to meet the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is worth reviewing the discussions and decisions from this conference for understanding the ongoing DRC conflict and the blind spots of the humanitarian community in addressing it.
To begin, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Ms. Sigrid Kaag, and European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Mr. Christos Stylianides, co-hosts of the conference, presented the Congo humanitarian crisis as resulting from the fragility of the Congolese state and the fragmentation of its social and political fabric. While the former underlined the resilience of the Congolese people, evoking the harrowing stories they tell about their lives as well as the cycle of poverty, violence, and conflict in which they are trapped, the latter gave a powerful (European) eyewitness to the sufferings of Congolese. “I saw with my own eyes the massive humanitarian needs on the ground. The high number of displaced people. The many malnourished children. The number of victims of violence. Unthinkable violence. Unfortunately, this is not fake news. I wish it was. But it is not. This is the hard reality on the ground.”[1]
In his opening words, Mark Lowcock, the United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordination, also depicted a situation describing a gloomy humanitarian crisis. Here is just one illustration he provided, regarding the humanitarian challenges facing the DR Congo:
Last year, the United Nations and its partners provided life-saving aid and protection to more than 4.2 million people in the DRC. More than 1.6 million people have obtained food assistance, many through cash. We provided access to basic healthcare to more than 3.4 million women, men and children. Seven million people have received vaccination against measles and 1.7 million more people have access to clean water and basic sanitation.[2]
Yet the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the DRC doubled since 2017 to reach a total of 13 million by April 2018. Among them, as many as 7.7 million are food insecure; 4.6 million children suffer from malnourishment while another 2.2 million have severe acute malnutrition. Recently. There has been a resurgence of cholera, and sexual violence continues. Whole regions and communities are beginning to crumble within this volatile political context. In the Ituri region, for instance, ethnic violence is on the rise, while in the Kasai recent violence sent many people into neighboring Angola. In that region, the central government seems involved in an armed race with customary traditional power, setting a precedent for the tribalism which constitutes an alternative way of vying for power and allocating resources.
The context
This representation of Congolese sufferings is not new. It reflects a long tradition of abuse and exploitation in which the voices of the Congolese people get muzzled by economic interests. From the time the Congo was created as a “free state,” during the colonial scramble, it was thrust into the international relations as a “no man’s land,” indicating that it did not even belong even to the native inhabitants. As a matter of fact, the country was portrayed as a “non-civilization,” the very embodiment of darkness and savagery, and therefore the foil of Europe. As a result, the inherited colonial and postcolonial image of the Congo still conveys to this day, in theory and in practice, the paradoxes and contradictions of a country where nothing works and nothing has ever worked. These representations have justified interventions and plunder by Western multinational companies, United Nations missions, and international organizations since the inception of the state.
Given this background, the democratic transition and consolidation policy at the end of the Cold War appears to be an international ploy to accelerate the privatization of public services and the country’s enormous wealth at the expense of the Congolese citizens. Institutional consolidation and the reform of the judiciary system have been neglected to the advantage of consolidating personalized rule and opening the country to humanitarian interventions. In other words, the return of strong men in Africa and dictatorial regimes has not been condemned by western powers that are quick to embrace these dictators as long as they can protect western interests on the continent. Thus, Congo’s descent into a new political crisis since the president’s second and last constitutional term expired on December 19, 2016, appears as normal. In November 2016, President Kabila told the Parliament he was not ready to step down. As he put it, “I cannot allow the republic to be taken hostage by a fringe of the political class.” His young brother, Zoe Kabila, echoed this unwillingness to quit power when he told Jeune Afrique, “The Kabilas are not ready to give up power to anyone […] When we were children our father used to tell us that it was we who were going to rebuild the DR Congo.”[3]
Perhaps the ruling elite needs more time to complete the reconstruction and development agenda it started in 2001. But the people would have a hard time believing this story. They have yet to see their lives improve, and most decry the precariousness of human life measured by both the material and the physical insecurity they encounter. Though the Congo has known tough times before, it has never been this bad. Take for instance the fact that the exchange rate of the Congolese Franc in 2009 was slightly less than 500 CDF for 1 $US. In 2013 it was 914 CDF for 1 $US; 1,160 CDF in 2016; as of June 2017, 1 $US was exchanged for almost 1,500 CDF, and today it amounts to 1,600 CDF. The average people who transact in CDF on a daily basis have seen their purchasing power drop by more than 300% in the last nine years, making the poor even poorer. The few who can afford it conduct their economic transactions in US dollars.
On June 23, 2017, Congolese Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a pastoral letter explaining this social precariousness. Heads of households feel powerless not only as they are unable to protect their families but also because they cannot send their children to school for lack of money. Most parents don’t have the opportunity to live the kind of life they would choose for their children. Communities can’t protect their lands as human life is constantly under threat. The Kasai conflict, where almost 3,500 people have been killed in the fighting between government forces and the Kamuina Nsapu insurgency, illustrates well this inability to protect lives and livelihoods. In this volatile sociopolitical environment, the local Catholic Church asserts that up to 1.3 million people have fled their homes. The UN Human Rights Council’s international investigation into the violence discovered new mass graves, bringing the total number to 52 in the Kasai region alone. Most Congolese human rights activists are arrested and jailed for minor offenses, if they are not murdered outright, while corrupt leaders are rewarded.
Given this situation, Lowcock identified and evaluated the needs of both Congolese victims and non-Congolese refugees living in the Congo. “The Humanitarian Response Plan and the Regional Refugee Response Plan requires $2.2 billion dollars in 2018,” he claimed. He argued that although “that’s a lot of money […], it amounts to less than 50 cents a day for each of the people whose lives we are trying to save and protect.” [4] Indeed, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned the international community and other donors that the lack of funding constituted the single biggest obstacle to alleviate the “world’s largest humanitarian crises.” At the conference, donors pledged US$528 million, a good start for some observers, even though others expressed disappointment that “too few countries sent a real message of hope to the millions of Congolese children, women, and men in desperate need of assistance.”
The Congolese government not only boycotted participation in the conference – although afterwards it expressed a desire to co-manage the funds raised – but Congolese officials also argued that the international community was deliberately “misrepresenting” both the crisis and the refugee numbers to increase its own budget. As Congo’s Minister of Communications and government spokesperson Lambert Mende put it, this misrepresentation frightened investors who could helping bring in money for development while also propping up the aid industry. While contesting the necessity, motivation, and legitimacy of the fundraising event, Congo’s government pledged to provide US$ 100 million to address the problem of internally displaced persons (IDPs), who the government estimated totaled only 231,241.
Contesting the humanitarian crisis claim of the international community and denying that the situation is at the breaking point, Congolese authorities’ attitude of denial can be summed up by president Kabila’s statement that his government’s balance sheet is positive.[5] Yet, most Congolese people have no access to healthcare; those who can afford it travel to India, Kenya, South Africa looking for better healthcare facilities. Most parents feel powerless and depressed for not being able to feed their families, send their children to school, or give them a better life. The youth are jobless and prey to recruitment into urban or rural militias. The level of desperation and frustration has never been so high. In addition, summary killings, police and military brutality during protests, and large numbers of refugees running for their lives continue.
[1] (All three speeches are available and accessible via the OCHA’s website at https://www.unocha.org/humanitarian-conference) Emphasis is my own.
[2] https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/under-secretary-general-humanitarian-affairs-and-emergency-relief-3
[3] http://www.jeuneafrique.com/mag/348870/politique/rd-congo-zoe-kabila-de-lombre-a-lumiere/
[4] (http://www.africanews.com/2018/04/15/aid-conference-for-dr-congo-draws-528-mn-in-pledges-un//).
[5] Cf. interview with Bartholomaus Grill and Susanne Koebl, Der Spiegel http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-congo-president-joseph-kabila-a-1150521.html ).