On Dec. 23, the United Nations Security Council renewed the mandate of its peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It should have allowed the force’s mandate to lapse.
The 20,000-strong force in DRC, known as MONUC (for the French of United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo), is the largest U.N. peacekeeping force in the world. It costs $1 billion a year, nearly one-quarter of the entire U.N. peacekeeping budget. Yet over 10 years since its deployment to eastern Congo, rebel groups run rampant, sexual violence is endemic and many Congolese civilians continue to live in fear. By most measures, MONUC has failed.
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