Great Lakes region

I- the Great Lakes region is progressively leaving the crisis behind, but instability remains
II- France is particularly involved in settling the Great lakes crisis.

For over 15 years, the Great Lakes region has been the seat of destabilizing tensions for all of central Africa. It has been the theatre of one of the bloodiest armed conflicts since the end of the Second World War.

Today, the mobilization of the international community to negotiate an end to the crisis is unprecedented. France is playing an active role in this, acting in the front line in a framework that complies with the directions of French diplomacy in Africa.

1- the Great Lakes crisis has had destabilizing effects throughout central Africa (1993-2002)

The Great Lakes crisis started at the beginning of the 1990s with the civil war in Burundi (October 1993) and the Rwandan genocide (April-July 1994). It was fuelled by internal political and ethnic tensions in the various countries of the region. Its repercussions hit the eastern part of Zaïre, now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which became the epicentre of the conflict, when, in 1997, Laurent Désiré Kabila’s troops toppled General Mobutu, with the support of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. A complex game of alliances was established around the DRC, involving as many as nine countries in the region. In 1998, Laurent Désiré Kabila broke away from his former allies, which intervened militarily in the DRC and backed the formation of Congolese rebels. At the same time, Zimbabwe, Angola, Chad and Namibia provided Kinshasa with military support.

These interventions have resulted in a de facto occupation of more than half of Congo’s territory. The freezing of positions compelled the warring parties to establish the impossibility of a military victory and negotiations, formalized by the Sun City Agreement in April 2002, put an end to the fighting. The peace accords signed between the DRC and Rwanda (July 2002) and between the DRC and Uganda (September 2002) made the departure of foreign troops stationed on Congolese territory possible. A transitional government was set up in June 2003, with the aim of organizing elections within three years.

2- real progress has been made, but the context remains very unstable

Significant progress has been made:

  Peace has been progressively established in the region with the end of military fighting, which now remains limited to the eastern part of the DRC (Kivu region)since a cease-fire agreement was signed in September 2006 between the Burundi government and the last active FNL rebellion;

  Political transition processes have been completed in good conditions in Burundi and the DRC, marked by the organization of free and democratic elections in August 2005 and October 2006;

  A new dynamic for dialogue and cooperation between the countries of the region has been established, marked specifically by the signing of the Pact for peace, security and development in the Great Lakes region in December 2006 in Nairobi and the emergence of new arenas for regional cooperation (Tripartite Plus Commission, Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries).

However, risk factors remain:

  The continuing presence in the eastern part of the DRC of illegal Congolese and foreign armed groups (in particular Rwandan Hutu rebels of the FDLR, the core of which is made up of former “génocidaires” [perpetrators of genocide] who fled Rwanda in 1994) fuels a continuing climate of insecurity, of which the civilian populations are the first victims (forced conscription of children, women who are victims of large-scale sexual violence). Progress was made in January 2008 with the Kivus Conference on peace, security and development and the signing of cease-fire and military disengagement agreements by illegal Congolese armed groups, opening up encouraging prospects;

  The humanitarian consequences of the crisis are still being felt with a toll that remains one of the world’s worst (nearly 1.3 million internal displaced persons in the DRC, in spite of the increasing number of returns in recent years, as 300,000 Congolese refugees who fled the war between 1996 and 2003 are still present in the countries bordering the DRC and 250,000 Burundi refugees are still present in Tanzania);

  The economic and social consequences of the conflict continue to weigh heavily on the region’s economic recovery and development. In addition, the crisis has generated a new type of war economy characterized by a phenomenon of plundering of natural resources, in which the neighbouring countries were actively involved. Today, the eastern Congolese regions are still controlled by gold- and diamond-trafficking networks, over which the State has no authority and from which it receives no profit.

1- France has a strong bilateral involvement.

France has long been involved in the Great Lakes region. This involvement is not based on a colonial past, as none of the countries in this region belonged to the former French Empire, nor is it based on economic interests, which remain very modest, in spite of the economic potential of the DRC. It is, however, fuelled by a special relationship founded in particular on the French language connection.

This presence has caused France to play a leading role in supporting the peace process, and, specifically, supporting the national transition processes.

In Burundi, France was, along with South Africa and other countries, a key partner in helping to establish the Arusha Accords signed in August 2000. It contributed extensively to the outcome of the peace process, by being the first country to reinstate in 1998, its cooperation with Burundi and to support the programme aimed at disarming the former combatants. France was also one of the backers of the electoral process and one of the main supporters to Burundi in normalizing its relations with international financial institutions. It is currently pursuing an active cooperation with the Burundi government, marked by the signing in November 2006 of a partnership framework document totalling €47M for the period 2006-2010, in the areas of education, good governance, consolidation of state of law and security forces, promotion of French as a world language and support for victims.

France has also been very involved in supporting the Congolese transition process,by helping to set up an independent electoral commission (IEC) tasked with organizing elections. France has also played a key political role within the CIAT (International Committee in Support of the Transition), composed of the ambassadors from the countries most involved in the DRC. In addition, France has been very active in training the Congolese police, intended to make the electoral process safe.

Now, France intends to strengthen its support for the Congolese government, as demonstrated by the signing in March 2007 of a partnership framework document totalling an average of €200M for the period 2007-2011. This document concentrates our actions in the areas of education, protection of the environmentand biodiversityand health. Cooperation will also be pursued in the areas of governance, reform of the security sector (support for the army, police and Congolese justice system), French instruction, cultural diversityand support for civil society. In addition, France is providing humanitarian assistance to the populations that are victims of the conflict, through specialized UN and NGO agencies (tripling our emergency humanitarian assistance in 2007 to bring it to €5.5M).

2 - in accordance with the directions of french diplomacy in africa, France is acting within a multilateral framework in the great lakes.

Ending the Great Lakes crisis is a major challenge that is currently mobilizing unprecedented resources. France has strongly encouraged the progressive involvement of the United Nations, the European Union and African players from this region.

Beginning in 1998, France has been urging the UN Security Council to send a peacekeeping force to the DRC. France has constantly supported the consolidation of MONUC (increasing it to 18,000 men, mandate placed under chapter VII, concentration of forces in the east) to take part in making the civilian populations safe and to stabilize the security environment, in particular in the eastern regions. In accordance with its mandate, MONUC is currently involved in joint military operations with the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), leading to the disarmament of 20,000 militiamen in Ituri, in particular.

France also backed the deployment, in June 2004, of a 5,600-strong peacekeeping force in Burundi (UNOB). The UNOB made it possible to stabilize the situation during the last year of Burundi’s transition process and helped make elections secure. At the request of the Burundi government, the UNOB withdrew progressively, giving way to a United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi (BINUB) on 1 January 2007.

France has encouraged the escalation of the European Union’s role in the region; the EU has now established itself as a major player in the peace process in the DRC. Accordingly, the EU was the leading backer of elections, for which it provided up to 250 million euros. It is also the DRC’s leading partner in terms of public development aid.

The European Union’s role is especially apparent in Operation Artemis, conducted in Ituri from June through August 2003, the EU’s first military operation in Africa (France was the framework nation). Extending this operation, the European Union has gotten involved in a security cooperation with the Congolese government, with the launch of two ESDP missions - one in policing (EUPOL) and the other in supporting the reform of the Congolese army (EUSEC). Moreover, at the request of the United Nations, the EU decided to deploy a mission to make elections secure (EUFOR) from July through December 2006 to back MONUC. France and Germany contributed the most to this force.

Finally, France’s efforts in the Great Lakes have resulted in a close partnership with the African countries involved in the peace process. South Africa, which plays an important role in the DRC (backing the Pretoria Agreements, participating in MONUC, providing logistical support to the electoral process) and Burundi (mediation in negotiations with the FNL), and Angola, which intervenes in the reform of the Congolese security forces, are special partners.

Updated on 20.02.08