According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over 1200 civilian deaths and 1100 rapes have been recorded this year so far in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) provinces of Ituri and North Kivu. The dire situation in DRC has left millions in need of humanitarian aid which in turn prompts the need for lasting solutions for the growing crisis caused by ISCAP jihadists.
Attacks attributed to ISCAP have increased in brutality since late 2020, and the frequency of killings of civilians has not abated despite the state of siege which questions the effectiveness of the measures and the capability of the military to deal with the insurgency.
As the security situation fails to improve, DRC should consider the regional involvement in eradicating the enemy as it has proved effective in rooting ISCAP militants in Mozambique. Uganda’s President has expressed his desire and plans to help in eradicating the militants by deploying troops to DRC to aid in the CT operations. Security analysts maintain that regional intervention might prove more effective as the existing Peacekeepers and Congolese military has not made headway in defeating or weakening the insurgency instead the group appears to have expanded in the past couple of months.
Bilateral cooperation between Uganda and DRC in place of the tensions between the two nations is projected to make progress using the Kenya-Somalia cooperation against al Shabaab as a case study as well as the recent Tanzania-Mozambique cooperation which is expected to corner militants. The militants have been known to migrate and hide between the two nations and as such a military intervention backed by both nations would be a milestone in the fight especially seeing as a considerable number of ISCAP terrorists is Ugandan.
