Ukrainian Mil Mi-24 helicopters serving with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) successfully participated in an emergent operation to evacuate UN personnel amid mass clashes in the city of Beni in the African country’s east.
The area located in North Kivu province close to the border with Uganda on Nov. 24 saw yet another brutal attack by Islamist militants affiliated with the so-called Allied Democratic Forces terror group tied to Islamic State. According to the UN, at least eight local civilians were killed and nine more taken prisoner in the terror group’s night raid against one of Beni’s districts.
The attack triggered mass street protests against the MONUSCO mission in the area, with numerous protesters accusing local authorities and UN forces of failing to ensure effective protection from Islamist assaults. Angry crowds blocked and thrashed a Malawian UN outpost near Beni on Nov 24. Amid escalating tensions the day after, the protesters also broke through a base operated by civilian MONUSCO personnel in the town of Buakene near Beni, then plundered and burned some of the mission’s buildings and vehicles.
Ukrainian UN peacekeepers get back to their barracks after a flight mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on July 22, 2019. (Vlasyslav Demyanenko/Ukraine's Armed Forces)
Two more civilians were reported killed in new clashes on Nov. 26. According to Al Jazeera news outlet, the angered crowds demand that UN troops take action against militants’ atrocities or leave the area. A previous ADF attack in the region was reported as recently as Nov. 12, with Ukrainian-operated helicopters also engaged in delivering an airstrike upon the militants.
In such a situation, the UN command decided to withdraw from the embattled Buakene base. Ukrainian Mil Mi-24 were ordered to ensure air support to South African transport helicopters evacuating the civilian personnel amid ongoing attacks upon the base.
Due to growing tensions in the region, Ukraine’s 18th Helicopter Detachment deployed to the cities of Beni, Goma, and Kalemie in eastern Congo as part of the MONUSCO mission, was put on high alert, the Ukrainian military said on Nov. 26.
The 80-million Central African nation is enmeshed in a decades-long brutal war of all against all, with a weak Congolese government failing to control 10 out of 26 provinces, mostly in the country’s east. Numerous regional warlords leading various militant formations are engaged in fighting for lucrative resources like diamonds, coltan, tantalum, or cobalt, sold abroad on the black market.
Numerous militant groups also terrorize the civilian population and force it into slave labor to extract the resources in territories under their control.
Later on Nov. 25, the Ukrainian helicopters also transported a Guatemalan special task force to the Beni airport in order to help ensure a stronger security regime in the embattled region.
According to the Ukrainian contingent’s press officer Vlasyslav Demianenko, none of 250 Ukrainian military servicepersons deployed to the Congo was hurt during the latest operation.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Nov. 26 said it would withdraw as many as 49 personnel amid ongoing violence in Beni, another hotspot of deadly Ebola fever raging in the region.
“While 49 were relocated, 71 remain on the spot at this point to ensure as good as possible or at least the minimum support to Ebola response,” WHO spokesman Lindmeier said on Nov. 26.
“We need law and order restored in order to carry out the vital operations.”
