Operation CROCODILE

Operation CROCODILE is Canada's military contribution to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, better known as the Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo, or the acronym MONUSCO.

Task Force Democratic Republic of the Congo

Task Force Commander: Colonel André Demers

Task Force Democratic Republic of the Congo (Task Force DRC) is the Canadian contingent in MONUSCO. Its nine members include eight staff officers with expertise in fields such as communications, information operations and training, and a senior non-commissioned member who handles all national support tasks. The staff officers are divided between MONUSCO Headquarters in Kinshasa and its eastern sector headquarters in Goma.

Mission context

MONUSCO and its mandate

MONUSCO is a follow-on mission that evolved from the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, better known as the Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies en République démocratique du Congo or MONUC. MONUSCO was created by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1925 of 28 May 2010 in recognition of the fact that the situation in the DRC had matured into a stabilization phase.

MONUSCO has a mandate to monitor implementation of the arms embargo imposed in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1896 of 30 November 2009, and to seize or collect materials that violate the ban. The mission also provides technical and logistical support to national and local elections within the limits of its capacities and resources, but only when asked to do so by DRC authorities.

On 30 June 2012, MONUSCO had troops from 51 nations and police from 26 nations. At that time, mission strength stood at:

• 17,054 uniformed military personnel;
• 715 United Nations Military Observers (UNMOs);
• 1,375 police (including formed units);
• 954 international civilian personnel;
• 2,876 local civilian staff; and
• 612 United Nations Volunteers.

Future reconfigurations of MONUSCO will be determined as the situation evolves on the ground, including:

• the completion of military operations in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale;
• improved government capacity to protect the population effectively; and
• the consolidation of state authority throughout the territory.

Renewed annually, the MONUSCO mandate was most recently extended to 30 June 2013 by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2053 of 27 June 2012, which also:

• Reaffirms that the mission's highest priority is always protection of civilians;
• Reiterates that the Government of the DRC has primary responsibility for security, national reconciliation, peace-building and development; and
• Expands the mission's mandate to include technical and logistical support to provincial and local elections.

The Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement and the formation of MONUC

MONUC, the mission that preceded MONUSCO, was established on 30 November 1999 by the U.N. Security Council to maintain liaison among the parties to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, which was signed in July 1999 by representatives of the DRC and its neighbours Angola, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement was the first concerted attempt to bring an end to the Second Congo War, which began in 1997 with a successful coup against President Mobutu Sese Seko and the conversion of the former state of Zaïre into the DRC under President Laurent Kabila.

The fighting continued after the coup, developing quickly into the widest interstate war in modern African history, centred mainly in the DRC's eastern provinces. Over more than 10 years of conflict occasionally halted by ceasefires, the war has involved nine African nations and directly affected the lives of some 50 million Congolese. According to the International Rescue Committee, about 3.8 million people lost their lives and 3.4 million were displaced in the DRC between August 1998 and April 2004, when the fighting was at its height. Millions more have become refugees displaced either within the DRC or into neighbouring countries.

Growth and development of MONUC

On 24 February 2000, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1291 to expand the mission to 5,537 military personnel, including up to 500 United Nations Military Observers (UNMOs), and 500 civilian support staff. The mandate was also expanded, to include:

• monitoring compliance with the Ceasefire Agreement,
• investigating ceasefire violations and compliance with the clauses on supply of weapons, ammunition and war-related materiel to the armed groups involved in the conflict,
• facilitating and verifying the disengagement and demobilization of the belligerent forces, and the return of prisoners of war,
• facilitating humanitarian assistance and human rights monitoring, and
• deploying and facilitating the work of mine-removal teams.

Resolution 1493 of 28 July 2003 imposed sanctions against the DRC in response to continuing hostilities in the eastern provinces that threatened the peace process. The sanctions regime was subsequently modified and strengthened over four resolutions adopted in 2004 and 2005.

MONUC grew steadily and, with Resolution 1856 of 22 December 2008, reached its peak of 22,016 total uniformed personnel, including 19,815 in formed military units, 760 UNMOs, 1,050 in formed police units, and 391 individual police officers. The task of helping Congolese authorities mount and conduct local elections was added to the mandate in 2006.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1906 of 23 December 2009 extended MONUC's mandate for the fourth time, to 31 May 2010. It also requested a strategic review of mission progress and the situation in DRC, with a deadline for recommendations of 1 April 2010. These recommendations led to the conversion of MONUC to MONUSCO under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1925 of 28 May 2010.