Continuing insecurity is one of the reasons why the Democratic Republic of Congo remains the poorest country in the world, and substantial United Nations peacekeeping efforts seem to be ineffective. The country’s army is supposed to be suppressing rebellions, and has received extensive training from military experts provided by other countries, but because of corruption and incompetence the army is not achieving its objectives.
Around 700 poorly armed and trained rebels prevailed for more than five months against the might of the government army backed by a UN force of 18,000 troops. The government army and UN forces have failed to engage the rebels or to defend civilian areas where inter-ethnic violence has been occurring. The cost of maintaining UN troops in the country is around $1.4 billion, with the bill being paid from the foreign aid budgets of donor countries.
Insecurity has been present in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo ever since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 spilled over the border. The genocide in Rwanda ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front gained control of the country, but the Interahamwe militia which had been doing the killing largely escaped over the border. Some of the continuing insecurity is alleged to have been funded by Rwanda.