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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
CONGO: 30,000 ex-fighters ready to disarm, reintegrate
BRAZZAVILLE, 31 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - Civil-war veteran Olivier Ngouebo, 39, has had enough of war after the bitter experiences of fighting in his home region of Niari between 1998 and 1999 and again in 2002.
"It is time for me to take care of myself and my children," he said recently in Dolisie, capital of Niari Department, about 370 km southwest of the Republic of Congo’s capital, Brazzaville.
Rather than walk the streets aimlessly or resort to criminality, he seized an opportunity to put a business idea into reality. In 2002, he secured backing for his fish-farming project from which he supports his wife and four children.
"I was among other ex-combatants whose projects were financed by the local High Commission for Reintegration," he said.
Today, at least 30,000 more ex-combatants, due to be disarmed, demobilised and reintegrated (DDR) into society, could eventually benefit from a similar programme slated to begin in September.
The immediate plan is to bring into the programme 5,000 fighters from the "ninjas" of former warlord Frédéric Bintsangou, alias Pasteur Ntoumi, and 6,000 from the national police force.
Some ninja fighters still cling to their guns and harass residents in Pool, an administrative department immediately to the north and west of Brazzaville.
"We are working each day to see how we can end all the misunderstandings that could pose an obstacle to Ntoumi's aides," Michel Ngakala, the high commissioner for the reintegration of former combatants, said.
Weapons recovery
So far, the commission has recovered and destroyed at least 11,776 guns and reintegrated into society 17,459 ex-combatants from the various groups - the ninjas, coyotes and cobras - that fought each other and the army during the wars. However, the Swiss non-governmental organisation, Small Arms Survey, said its investigation in 2005 into illegally held firearms showed that 34,000 were still in circulation. Most are in the Pool region, despite a March 2003 peace deal between the government and Ntoumi's Conseil national de la résistance.
Weapons recovery in Pool poses the greatest challenge to the DDR programme. This is because the young fighters must take the risk of walking or travelling by train to Brazzaville to surrender their guns.
"They are afraid of reprisals from others," said Hervé Gonsolin, the principal technical adviser to the Project for the Collection of Weapons, known by its French acronym as PCAD.
So, to overcome this and other obstacles in Pool, PCAD has set up community projects close to the homes of young fighters most at risk of returning to war or banditry.
"Instead of disarming them and providing [individual] reintegration programmes, we carry out community reintegration through our project, Youth at Risk, which combines the socioeconomic dimension of the young people, including ex-ninja fighters," Eloi Kouadio IV, in charge of the community project, said.
The European Union has provided PCAD with at least two million euros (US $2.6 million) for its programmes since November 2005. In addition, the technical adviser with the EU delegation to the Republic of Congo, Arnaud Borchard, said donors wanted to support governments' efforts to revive human rights, democracy and peace in the area.
"It is clear that if we do not manage to disarm in the Pool Department, there will remain continuous political instability that will pose problems for us," he said.
The United Nations Development Programme is also supporting the effort to collect and destroy guns in the Pool and Brazzaville regions. So far, 1,000 of the 15,000 guns that were to have been collected have been received and, in a symbolic show of support for this effort, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and RoC President Denis Sassou-Nguesso witnessed the burning of some of these guns on 20 March.
Release of money
The DDR programme hinges on the release of a $25-million World Bank and EU grant agreed to the government in 2006. Ngakala said the World Bank required the national DDR coordination body to produce a joint plan of action, to recruit an internal and an external auditor, and for a government tax exemption on all the programme's operations.
"All these structures have been put in place," he said. "We are, therefore, in perfect harmony with the World Bank. We are waiting for the disbursement of the funds."
Ngakala said the money was expected to be available in September, which would then enable the practical phase of the DDR programme to begin in October and run through to August 2009.
The Congolese government is contributing 2.3 billion francs CFA(about US $4.5 million) to the programme, which will be included in its annual budget. Of this, Ngakala said, the government had already released 1.7 billion francs (about $2.3 million).
"This year, the government is working in harmony with us," he said.
Part of a wider programme
The Republic of Congo's DDR programme is only a part of a wider external donor-funded effort within the Great Lakes region aimed at bringing stability to the region after a long period of seemingly unending internal crises.
The RoC government sees its DDR programme as an extension of three initial stages carried out between 2001 and 2005.
While the north of the country was not physically affected by the civil wars, many of the ex-combatants came from this area to fight mostly in Brazzaville. For this reason, the government feels compelled to pay attention to residents in that part of the country.
"We must reintegrate the northern regions because at the end of the war the young people who were fighting went back there," Joseph Mbossa, the coordinator of the DDR Management Unit, said.
This means, as with residents in the southern part of the country, former child soldiers will receive care, efforts will be made in conflict prevention and management and medical and social services will be provided for ex-combatants. Before this programme is unrolled, however, public awareness campaigns - including HIV/AIDS - will be undertaken.
RoC's DDR programme will involve eight of the country's 11 regions: Niari, Bouenza, Lékoumou and Pool in the south; and Brazzaville, Plateaux, Cuvette and the West Cuvette in the north. Ngakala said departmental committees had been set up to support the programme that was now at an advanced stage.
"There is nothing to block its implementation," Ngakala said.
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This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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