{"id":643703,"date":"2013-02-25T07:40:27","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T12:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dfid.gov.uk\/?p=13262"},"modified":"2013-02-25T07:40:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T12:40:27","slug":"peace-in-the-drc-dealing-with-local-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/643703","title":{"rendered":"Peace in the DRC \u2013 dealing with local conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Kabila, with UNSG Ban Ki Moon looking on. Photo: AP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Leaders from 11 countries met yesterday (Sunday 23rd Feb) in Addis Ababa\u00a0and signed\u00a0a Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework <\/a>agreement intended to bring peace to the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. After nearly a year of renewed fighting in eastern DRC between rebel groups and the Congolese Army, the number of internally displaced people increased\u00a0by one million to 2.7 million. This comes after\u00a0months\u00a0of negotiations and was\u00a0welcomed by the UK Government in a statement<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0by the Foreign Office Minister, Mark Simmonds.Meanwhile, last week another peace agreement was signed, at a much more local level, reminding us that conflict in the DRC is not just about the east of the country.\u00a0Last Monday, following a\u00a0two year peace process, members of\u00a0four communities met in Equateur province to sign non-agression accords.<\/p>\n

The inyelle rebellion<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Peace Rally in Gemena, DRC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In 2009, long-standing socio-economic and political tensions between two tribal groups, exacerbated by local tensions over access to fishing ponds, exploded into a conflict that caused 200,000 people to flee their homes. The initial burst of conflict rapidly drew in local politicians and businessmen and the dispute was rapidly transformed into an armed rebellion that became a platform for others to vent political grievances, including troops loyal to Mobutu living in neighbouring Republic of Congo. The rebellion and the impact on thousands of families demonstrates how fragile peace in the DRC really is and how important it is for us to understand the local political economy and conflict drivers. More than that, it illustrates the potential for instability way beyond the headlines of eastern DRC.\u00a0<\/strong>A local peace accord<\/strong><\/p>\n

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25 car convey into town<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Last week, \u00a0I accompanied the UN Secretary General’s Deputy Special Representative, the national Minister of Interior and the diplomatic corps to Gemena in northern Equateur to witness the signing of the peace accords between these communities. After\u00a0two years of reconciliation work and repatriation efforts, the ceremony brought together the four communities. Despite my heart dropping as I was bundled into one of a 25 car convoy from the aiport to the ceremony (maybe I should just get over my dislike of the idea of these jamborees), it was a fascinating day and in fact an interesting example of senior political engagement in a province that is often ignored by national and international press.<\/p>\n

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Male community leaders smoke together<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The ceremony itself\u00a0 – arranged by the UN peacekeeping force, MONUSCO<\/a> and the national government, was an interesting insight into local conflict resolution. It was also surreal at times,\u00a0particularly the smoking ceremony, where the men from each of the\u00a0four communities – having handed over their weapons to the interior minister\u00a0– chain-smoked together as a sign of their new-found solidarity and brotherhood. More disturbingly, this was followed by a ceremony designed to demonstrate the invincibility of the tribes represented, that included young men from the four communities jostling in line to be whipped.This local peace process was a practical illustration\u00a0of the importance of action on local conflict in the DRC, the subject of\u00a0S\u00e9verine Autesserre<\/a>‘s book “The Trouble with the Congo”.<\/p>\n

It struck me, watching the violent display of strength and personal resilience in Equateur last week, how different this ceremony\u00a0would have been from\u00a0the pomp and ceremony of the events in\u00a0Ethiopia, but also how important it is that we focus\u00a0on the local causes of conflict and ensure that our diplomatic and development interventions go beyond the east.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Kabila, with UNSG Ban Ki Moon looking on. Photo: AP Leaders from 11 countries met yesterday (Sunday 23rd Feb) in Addis Ababa\u00a0and signed\u00a0a Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework agreement intended to bring peace to the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. After nearly a year of renewed fighting in eastern DRC between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}