originally published in the Daily Nation
The United States military will be sending experts to war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo this week in a new test to break a cycle of violence that has been ongoing since the mid 1990s.
America’s Africa Command, better known as AFRICOM, will be sending down a “small group” to examine the potential for a greater role for the superpower in one of Africa’s most devastated regions, according to a military spokesperson
“There were discussions when Secretary of State Clinton was here,” says Ken Fidler, spokesperson for AFRICOM. “We’ve been asked to help with the government’s efforts in the region.”
American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited eastern Congo earlier this month, where she met with rape victims, and Congolese President Joseph Kabila, and pledged to help.
“We’re sending a team of specialists down to see what can be done,” said Mr Fidler. “This initial assessment is crucial to discuss further potential activities.”
The initial team will be small, Mr. Fidler says, but more may follow. Three specialists, including medical and media personnel are already on their way to the Congo. They are civilians, not soldiers.
AFRICOM was first established in 2008, by the Bush administration to show Africa’s renewed significance for American interests. Its inability to establish an actual base on the continent though (headquarters is in Germany) hints at a lack of enthusiasm to prove that point.
Its purpose, in fact, is not so much military intervention as it is peacekeeping, and acting as a supplement to peacekeepers already on the ground.
That’s what they hope to be doing in the Congo, where the United Nations has been unable to stem a sharp rise in sexual violence and ugly rapes humanitarian-rights groups say has tripled in the last half-year.
To the Congo AFRICOM is also sending a public-relations strategist, who will work with the Congolese military – which has become a caricature of itself in recent months – to turn around an image tarnished by rowdiness, corruption, and rape.
“We want to talk to the military of the DRC,” says Mr Fidler. “Teach them how to communicate to their army, to teach a respect for human rights.”
Earlier on her trip to the war-torn region, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised to help stabilize and bring peace to the country. She specifically accented the importance of eliminating the rampant sexual violence, that has not discriminated against victims nor perpetrators.
“It is almost impossible to describe the level of suffering and despair,” Mrs Clinton said in the eastern city of Goma, a city that has been wracked by rebels of all persuasions, neighbouring and domestic armies, and diamond smugglers.
“We believe there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many, and that there must be arrests, prosecutions and punishments.”
Where the UN has failed, the United States hopes AFRICOM, which has been ridiculed by many for lack of focus and meaning, can make a name for itself.
But the command has been to the Congo before, specifically in February 2008, to tackle the same problem, sexual violence, in part amongst Congolese troops.
Since then, most would argue, things have only grown worse.
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