Never-Ending Security Headache

DRC regularly experiences insecurity on most of its borders as a result of its mineral endowment.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, has in recent years hardly known peace on its borders. A vast country of 2,345,409 square km, DRC has often been the victim of its rich endowment in various natural resources such as solid minerals, oil, lush tropical forests and natural parks.

A combination of factors accounts for this situation, including foreign interference, conflicts in neighbouring countries and tense relations with neighbours. Also, DRC's legacy of instability, impunity, misrule, weak central government, porous borders, neglect, and exploitation of ethnicity as a tool of governance, has tended to serve as a pull factor to covetous neighbours.

Rwanda, Burundi

Five Congolese soldiers were killed by Rwandan troops earlier this month in an accident on the border. But Congo's recent problems with Rwanda have their genesis in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The majority Hutu people, who lost out to the minority Tutsi community, sought refuge in eastern DRC and have hardly abandoned their quest to reconquer power in Kigali. Thus, the presence of FDLR Rwandan rebels in the region has been a source of regular tension between the two countries, though efforts are now underway to disarm them.

Similarly, Rwandan troops and DRC ethnic Tutsis who catapulted the late DRC leader, Laurent-Désiré Kabila to power in May 1997, later fell out with him. Ever since, animosity between the two countries has been characterised by frequent Rwandan armed incursions into DRC and support for armed dissidents. Though Burundi was involved in the 1990 wars in eastern DRC alongside Rwanda and Uganda, relations with Kinshasa have since improved.

However, the UN last month accused the ruling CNDD-FDD party of President Pierre Nkurunziza of training and arming its youth - the infamous Imbonerakure - in DRC in preparation for the 2015 elections. Though, the President denied the allegations, his failed attempt to change the Constitution suggests that trouble might be brewing on the border with DRC.

Uganda, CAR

Apart from taking part in the 1990 wars against the Kinshasa government, Uganda has been accused of fueling trouble inside the borders of DRC. Most M 23 rebels who were routed in 2013 in a joint DRC-UN offensive are known to have fled into Uganda.

Despite calls for their hand over to DRC, Ugandan authorities have been adamant. Also, ADF-Nalu Ugandan militia men have for some time occupied swathes of territory in eastern DRC, though a recent army onslaught only partly succeeded in pushing them back.

On the other hand, Lord's Resistance Army, LRA Ugandan rebels continue to wreak havoc in DRC border areas after fleeing an army offensive back at home some years ago. A 2013 report by human rights group, Enough Project, said the LRA was systematically killing DRC elephants and trading poached ivory for food, weapons, ammunition and other supplies.

On the other hand, the ongoing conflict in the Central African Republic, CAR, has sent refugees flocking into northern DRC. The United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, last March warned of the havoc being created in Orientale Province by former CAR soldiers and defunct Séléka militia men. MONUSCO said harassment by CAR armed men had created an atmosphere of insecurity along the DRC-CAR border, causing hundreds of villagers to flee their homes.

Congo Brazzaville, Zambia

The DRC has had fewer security challenges on its border with Congo Brazzaville, except for last month's expulsion of thousands of Congolese nationals for alleged involvement in criminal activities and not having the right papers. Though the issue was resolved after a joint commission meeting, the fate of expelled informal workers remains in the balance as they might not be welcomed back; save for those who hail from border communities.

Further down south, the DRC border with Zambia is the country's biggest link to trade routes in southern Africa and beyond. However, foreign truck drivers often complain of harassment inside DRC, leading to the killing of two of their colleagues in recent months.

Angola

To the west where the DRC shares a little border with Angola, tensions have of late been mounting. This follows suggestions that Angolan oil companies may be illegally drilling and exploiting oil reserves on DRC territory. As a result, some observers have questioned the 25,000 barrels of oil that DRC reportedly extracts per day. This is compounded by the fact that Congo does not have the capacity and technology to monitor the flow of crude oil from its territory.

Underlying disputes over off-shore oil resources are partly to blame for the often tense relations between DRC and Angola. The border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola is also rich in minerals, particularly diamonds. The area made headlines in October 2009 when the two countries expelled tens of thousands of people in both directions. Within DRC itself, resource revenues, illegal exports and disagreements over lucrative mining contracts, have been major drivers of conflict for many years.