Q+A - DR Congo still struggling to overcome conflict
KINSHASA Nov 12 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic Congo is still plagued by insecurity six years after a war that drew in neighbours and cost millions of lives.
Here is an outline of the main sources of strife and their impact on the central African country, whose 63 million people have yet to see the benefits of its vast mineral wealth.
WHAT IS BEHIND THE FIGHTING IN THE EAST?
Most of Congo's unrest is in the east, still a patchwork of militias, homegrown rebels and foreign armed groups despite the accords that ended the 1998-2003 war.
As part of a thawing of relations with former foe Rwanda, President Joseph Kabila's army is locked in battle with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan rebel group on Congo soil with links to the Hutu extremists behind the 1994 genocide of their Tutsi compatriots.
Despite U.N. operational support, the mission is having limited success. While around 1,300 of an estimated 6,000 FDLR fighters have been disarmed, over 1,000 civilians have been killed in the offensive, more than 7,000 women and girls raped and close to a million people forced from their homes.
IS THAT LINKED TO RECENT VIOLENCE IN THE NORTH?
No. The clashes in the northern region of Equateur, which killed 47 Congolese policemen and an unknown number of civilians last month, are rooted in ethnic feuding over fishing rights.
Authorities have arrested around 100 armed villagers and say the violence is over. But the situation is volatile and around 22,000 civilians have fled to neighbouring Congo Republic.
Further east in the Ituri district of Orientale province, remnants of militias involved in a separate ethnic conflict that grew out of the 1998-2003 war continue raids on villages.
WHAT ABOUT THE LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY?
Having terrorised civilians in northern Uganda for nearly two decades, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) -- notorious for mutilating their victims and using child soldiers -- crossed into Congo's sparsely populated northeast in late-2005.
Uganda led a multinational strike last December against a LRA base in the remote Garamba National park. The movement's estimated 800-1,000 fighters escaped from the raid largely unscathed and unleashed a campaign of terror against Congolese civilians that has killed at least 1,200 people to date.
However a joint offensive by Congolese and Ugandan troops appears to be having some results. The United Nations estimates that no more than 100 LRA fighters remain in Congo, with the bulk having fled to neighbouring Central African Republic.
WHAT IS THE REST OF THE WORLD DOING ABOUT IT?
The decade-old United Nations mission was charged with monitoring the peace deals that ended the 1998-2003 war and accompanying Congo on the road to elections in 2006. Now, with an annual budget of nearly $1.4 billion and some 19,000 troops, MONUC is the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world.
Around 95 percent of its troops are stationed in the east and are offering logistical and operational support to the Congolese offensive despite concerns over civilian bloodshed. The U.N. role has twice received the unanimous backing of the U.N. Security Council, where it is viewed as crucial to ensuring a wider peace between Congo and Rwanda. The alleged implication of certain Congolese army units in the killings of at least 62 civilians prompted it this month to suspend support for those elements, but U.N. chiefs insist the overall policy is right.
HOW ARE CONGO'S MINERAL RESOURCES CAUGHT UP IN THIS?
Congo's 1998-2003 conflict was largely fueled by the looting of its abundant natural and mineral wealth. Since the return of a relative peace, authorities want to tempt investors back with contracts to develop untapped copper, gold, and tin deposits.
Congo's potentially lucrative copper and cobalt sector has been little affected by the turmoil, and the southern Katanga Province, the country's mining heartland, has seen a boom in mining investment since successful 2006 polls.
U.N. experts highlight the trade in the tin ore cassiterite -- used in devices such as mobile phones and games consoles -- as a source of funds for groups, including the FDLR. The ensuing controversy has prompted some traders to stop sourcing tin from Congo but there is a push to win them back with schemes to improve traceability and ensure proceeds do not fuel conflict.
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