UN SG Fires Lt General Babacar Gaye for Intolerable Humanitarian Catastrophe in Eastern Congo
UN SG Fires Lt General Babacar Gaye for Intolerable Humanitarian Catastrophe in Eastern Congo
UN SG Fires MONUSCO Force Commander
Sources at the United Nations in New York tell AfroAmerica Network that the UN Secretary General has fired the Force Commander of United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the COngo (MONUSCO), Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye from Senegal.
The dismissal of Lt General Babacar Gaye follows acknowledgment by the UN Security Council that the war in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, especially in the Kivus, against rebels, both foreign and local, has failed and only led to a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
A coalition of Congolese government troops (FARDC), Rwandan Government troops (RDF), and Rwandan sponsored militias (CNDP) has been waging an unsuccessful campaign against congolese Mai-Mai militias and Rwandan Hutu rebels since January 2009. MONUC/MONUSCO forces, under the command of Lt. General Babacar Gaye provided logistical support and sometimes combat support.
The FARDC and their Rwandan allies have most of the time targeted civilians and systematically massacring them or raping women, provoking the outrage from the media and humanitarian organization and the United Nations itself.
Rwandan sponsored and funded militias of CNDP are commanded by an accused war criminal, General Bosco Ntaganda.
The UN Security Council, in light of the grave crimes against civilians by the coalition of the FARDC, RDF, and CNDP , had to change the mandate of the discredited MONUC. MONUC was MONUSCO by the UN Security Council resolution adopted on May 28, 2010. MONUC boss, Alan Doss, was forced to resign; now the Force Commander is asked to leave.
Lieutenant General Gaye has served as Force Commander of MONUC and then MONUSCO from March 2005 through to July 2010, with a brief break in 2008 when the Spanish Lieutenant General Vincente Diaz de Villegas appointed to replace him, abruptly resigned complaining of the lack of clear mandate.
Lieutenant General Gaye, born in 1951 in Senegal, is a graduate from France and Belgium war colleges and has been working with the UN Peacekeeping missions since 1979.
He will be replaced by a Force Commander from India.
©AfroAmerica Network
Monday, July 12, 2010