By Ernest Harsch
As recently as February, fighting raged between rebel militia fighters and government soldiers in the Ituri forests of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But on 8 May, following the agreement of the militia commanders to finally disarm, more than 200 members of the group handed in their weapons to United Nations peacekeepers in Doi, northeast of Bunia, the regional capital.
Several hundred more fighters still remain in the forests. But thousands of their comrades have already demobilized, as the trend towards peace picks up momentum. Some of these former combatants are being retrained for service in the new national army. Others are taking part in the many reintegration projects under way in Ituri and elsewhere in the DRC. They are learning skills to help them return to civilian life, from manufacturing bricks, milling grain and rearing goats to building bridges and primary schools.
More than 3,000 kilometres away, in Côte d’Ivoire, another disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) operation is about to begin, following the signature in March of a peace agreement between the government and rebel forces that have held the northern half of that West African nation for more than four years. Under the programme, up to 50,000 fighters on both sides of the conflict will disarm and return to civilian life.
In yet another country, Chad, the government signed an agreement with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in May to immediately disarm all child soldiers in the ranks of its army. Beyond simply freeing children from military service, explained UNICEF Representative Stephen Adkisson, an effort will also be needed to help them “rejoin the communities from which they came and rebuild their lives.”
Whether they are children or adults, many of those caught up in Africa’s various wars now want nothing more than to set aside their weapons and earn a living. As Haja Sheriff, a former militia woman in Liberia, told Africa Renewal, all she hopes to do is get some land to grow rice and vegetables and maybe raise a few animals.
Across the continent, as more of Africa’s numerous wars are settled and give way to peace agreements, the disarmament and reintegration of former combatants is becoming an increasingly common feature. Through its African peacekeeping operations, the UN has helped disarm and return to civilian life some 400,000 former combatants over the past five years alone.
Carrying out DDR effectively is vital for “preventing the recurrence of violence and creating the conditions for sustainable peace,” then UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa Legwaila Joseph Legwaila said in April. Unfortunately, he added, “there is ample evidence that current DDR practices often do not accomplish those objectives, since there have been numerous instances of African countries relapsing into violence.”
With the aim of helping Africans ensure the greater success of such operations, the UN’s Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) and the government of the DRC will hold an International Conference on Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Stability in Africa in Kinshasa on 12-14 June.
There have been other conferences, seminars and workshops devoted to assessing and strengthening DDR programmes. In December 2006, the UN established Integrated DDR Standards to improve the design of such operations in a more systematic fashion. But the focus of the Kinshasa conference, like a similar pan-African DDR conference organized by OSAA in Sierra Leone in June 2005, will concentrate specifically on Africa and will emphasize the views and recommendations of African practitioners.
The participants will come from some 20 African countries, among them Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC, Liberia and Uganda. They will include government officials, DDR beneficiaries, members of national armed forces and former insurgent factions, parties to peace accords, and representatives of host communities and civil society organizations. They will draw on the lessons of past and current DDR experiences in Africa, with the aim of highlighting ways to make disarmament and reintegration strategies more effective, build African ownership of them and encourage the international community to provide more constructive support.
While there have been some improvements in DDR practices in recent years, certain aspects pose particular challenges. So in addition to sharing experiences across countries, the conference will focus on several thematic issues that require more attention. These will include child soldiers and children in armed conflict, the links between DDR and transitional justice, military and police reform, problems related to the presence of combatants from other countries, better addressing the specific needs of women ex-combatants and building public-private partnerships to create jobs for former fighters.
“By refining our approach to DDR,” says UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guéhenno, “we can better help each ex-combatant to ultimately reintegrate into society.” The aim, he said, is to have them “go from being a cause of insecurity to a force for growing stability.