What do eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Gaza have in common? Both suffer conflict, but in neither case was war foreordained. Rather, in both Congo and Gaza, decades of United Nations negligence and mismanagement drove the regions to war.
Consider Gaza: Thousands of Israelis and Gazans died in the war that erupted after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That attack occurred with the foreknowledge of many United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees employees. UNRWA-run hospitals became Hamas command and control centers. UNRWA officials diverted aid to build a tunnel system that rivaled that of North Vietnam 55 years ago. Some UNRWA employees even participated in rape, torture, and murder. Released hostages say that they spent time in UNRWA facilities while under Hamas captivity.
Some UNRWA employees even participated in rape, torture, and murder. Released hostages say that they spent time in UNRWA facilities while under Hamas captivity.
The rot within UNRWA was never a secret. In 1951, UNRWA called for its own rapid disbandment. “There must be a firm goal of terminating relief operations,” the agency reported. “Sustained relief operations inevitably contain the germ of human deterioration.”
The bureaucracy took a life of its own, however. Another warning came in 2009 when James G. Lindsay, the agency’s outgoing general counsel, warned about Hamas infiltration; the U.N. refused to acknowledge the problem.
Instead, UNRWA camps became home to bomb makers and catalysts for incitement and extremism. School teachers who moonlighted as terrorists indoctrinated new generations of Palestinians to hate Jews and justify terrorism. With such a record, it is not surprising the White House asks if UNRWA is beyond reform. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s angry dismissals of the problem raises valid questions about his competence and bias, if not antisemitism.
Alas, UNRWA is not alone. Late last month, eastern Congo erupted into war. U.N. malfeasance made that conflict inevitable. As in Gaza, U.N. refugee camps have become terror bases. Substitute Hutu génocidaires for Hamas and Tutsis for Jews, and the problem is similar. While U.N. missions in Congo have changed names over the years, what remains consistent is their failure to disarm terrorists sheltering in camps. Just as rejectionist Arab regimes, Iran, and Turkey back Hamas over Israel, so too do some African countries — South Africa and Burundi, for example — blindly support Congolese militants over Rwanda.
U.N. reports involving Israel are notorious. U.N. rapporteurs engage in base antisemitism. They take data from dictators and terrorists at face value. Outlets such as the New York Times, the Economist, and even the Lancet amplify such calumnies. Just as U.N. officials side with Hamas out of antipathy toward the Jewish state, so too do U.N. bureaucrats twist the reality of eastern Congo.
U.N. officials and those clueless enough to trust them then blame the victims while exculpating the perpetrators.
This is the case with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO. Rather than keep peace, it has undermined it. When fighting erupts, it falsifies numbers, just as the Hamas “Ministry of Health” did until statisticians pointed out the internal contradictions of its own data. MONUSCO “peacekeepers” stand aside as local armed groups, propped up or supported by the Congolese government in Kinshasa, loot villages, massacre minorities, and engage in sexual violence. U.N. officials and those clueless enough to trust them then blame the victims while exculpating the perpetrators.
Calm now returns to eastern Congo much as it has in Gaza. The reason is not because of arm twisting by Washington, however, but because the insurgents led by M23 consolidated control over Goma, Congo’s sixth largest city. The M23 areas have long had surplus food because of sensible taxation and better governance, so residents now face the prospect of fuller markets and declining prices. This is a result to applaud, not condemn.
The U.N. does not always fail. In Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Cote d’Ivoire, U.N. peacekeeping succeeded. Those are the exception. More often, U.N. agencies amplify self-interest above peace. In such cases, the only response is to amputate the rot. If the goal is peace in both Gaza and eastern Congo, it is time to disband not only UNRWA but also MONUSCO, whose combined $2.5 billion annual budget could be better spent almost anywhere else.
