At the heart of the violence that has shaken the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo for thirty years, the city of Goma hears the sound of weapons once again. The intense fighting between the regular army and the M23 rebellion supported by Rwanda is now taking place less than twenty kilometers from the capital of North Kivu, populated by a million inhabitants.
The situation is so tense that the fall of the city and the risk of a regional war can no longer be ruled out, says the UN. With, already, serious consequences for the civilian populations: among them, nearly 400,000 had to flee the fighting and, sometimes, go to the displaced camps located nearby where more than 650,000 people were already surviving, mainly women and children.
The humanitarian crisis has been chronic around Goma since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Against a backdrop of looting, the region with immense natural resources is overwhelmed by violence, poverty and disease. Ceasefire agreements follow one another before being methodically broken. But the great powers prefer to look the other way, leaving others to ensure the peacekeeping mission created by the UN… in 1999.
There would be many reasons to question these United Nations missions. But in the period we find ourselves in, where nationalism and the defense of particular interests continue to gain ground, it is more useful than ever to defend them. And to pay tribute to the soldiers who agree to be part of it: in the fighting of recent days, three peacekeepers – one Uruguayan and two South Africans – have lost their lives. On this day of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, let us not let this legacy of the Second World War die.