Eoin Young / MONUC
MONUC has this week commenced a US$4million training project for 11 FARDC (DRC Armed Forces) integrated brigades, in Rwampara (Ituri), as well as Nyeleke (N. Kivu) and Luberizi (S. Kivu). The project will train, in three month cycles, a total of 23,000 FARDC soldiers and officers up to September 2009.
The project was inaugurated as part of MONUC's mandate to provide, in the short term, basic training with the aim of strengthening the operational and technical capacity of the FARDC's integrated brigades deployed in the east of the country, and follows a pilot project that concluded in Rwampara in early 2007.
One of the MONUC project coordinators explained that the project aims to consolidate brassage* and improve command structures within the FARDC.
"It also aims to give the 11 FARDC brigades a technical, tactical and ethical programme of instruction and training, including gender and human rights based training. It also aims to raise, to a minimum level, the capabilities, internal cohesion and discipline of the integrated brigades, with a view to conducting joint operations with MONUC military," he said.
MONUC Training Task Forces (TTF), with each TTF comprising of approximately 40 blue helmets drawn from both Indian and Pakistani contingents, will be responsible for the training sessions, held in three month cycles on each site.
The project budget of US$4m will provide for food, medicines, tents, training aids, interpreters, instructors and fuel costs for the FARDC forces, excluding logistical and other infrastructural project costs.
Subject areas in the individual training programme include basic tactics and weapons use, leadership, field living and tactics, Congolese history, military discipline and democracy, health and hygiene, physical training, as well as the law of armed conflict and international human rights law.
Collective training will involve offensive operations; defense against an enemy; liberation of a village taken by the enemy; and peace support operations, such as sector control, checkpoints and patrols.
The majority of the FARDC lack basic military skills and professional knowledge, with poor self discipline and serious command and control problems, and many are unable to conduct independent operations.
The aim of the project forms an important part of MONUC's mandate, as the UN Security Council, through resolution 1756 of 15 May 2007, mandated MONUC to provide short term basic training to the FARDC in eastern DRC, including training in human rights, international humanitarian law, child protection and on the prevention of gender based violence.
*Brassage refers to the training process for ex combatants in the DRC, in order to form integrated FARDC (DRC Armed Forces) brigades.