Miriam Gapala, a MALBATT Female Engagement Team leader, greets people at a market in Oicha, DRC. Poverty, hunger and lack of medical care are the face of conflict in the DRC. Sustained war has left its mark on the people. With that disruption has come lawlessness that inflicts pain and suffering on civilians, particularly women and children. The war in the DRC has ravaged societies and caused many to become displaced or flee to other countries. Malawi’s Soldiers are not just in the DRC to protect civilians, but also to attend to their needs. The 850-member battalion brings with it a warm-hearted approach rooted in Southern Africa’s ubuntu tradition, which stresses human relations, particularly that all people belong to each other in a shared sense of humanity. Serving in that effort are the men and women of the Malawi Defence Force, who form the Malawi Battalion, or MALBATT as it is commonly known. Now the country is home to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), a 21,000-strong multinational peacekeeping force that works to bring peace to the region using “all necessary means” to protect civilians, humanitarian workers and others who live under the threat of violence. The detritus of this unrest has left behind instability exacerbated by a mix of violent groups, especially in the DRC’s eastern region and neighboring countries.
International peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is entering its third decade after years of regional conflict and two multinational wars.
WILNED KALIZGAMANGWERE CHAWINGA, MALAWI DEFENCE FORCE Female Malawian Peacekeepers Win the Trust of Locals by Attending to Basic NeedsĬAPT.
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