Conflict Resolution In Central Africa: A Comparative Analysis Of The International Conference On The Great Lakes Region(ICGLR) Security Policy From 2008 To 2018

The Great Lakes region(GLR)of Central Africa has endured decades of armed conflicts that have threatened security and peace in Africa.The genocide in Rwanda,the “First Congo War” and the “Second Congo War” which was described as the “First African World War” because it involved more than ten African nations and caused the death of more than 6 million people.All these conflicts have led leaders to ask questions on ways to restore peace to the GLR.Indeed,these conflicts have resulted in numerous problems for African states,such as large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons,the weakening of the state resulting in the existence of ungoverned spaces and the proliferation of many armed groups and “negative forces.” Also,most of these conflicts in the GLR were transnational,meaning that conflict in one country had negative repercussions to neighboring countries.It is in that context of conflicts,lack of trust and “security dilemma” throughout the whole region that under the United Nations(UN)initiative supported by the African Union(AU),the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region(ICGLR)was created.Its mission was to contribute to the pacification of the GLR and restore trust between GLR states by facilitating a coordinated fight against the “negative forces” and multiple armed groups that had been identified by the UN Security Council as one of the root causes of instability and insecurity in this part of Africa.Thus,just after its creation,the ICGLR was confronted with armed conflicts in eastern DRC that it managed.These are the National Congress for the Defence of the People(CNDP)and the March 23 rd Movement(M23)rebellion.More particularly,during the M23 rebellion the ICGLR contributed to the resolution of the crisis that once again threatened the entire region by positioning itself as a framework for consultation and negotiations that led to the resolution of the conflict.However,although some researchers have considered that the M23 crisis allowed the ICGLR to position itself as a true sub-regional organization and a true framework for conflict resolution in the GLR,others have argued that the ICGLR failed in its mission to pacify the GLR.Indeed,despite its presence in the region,armed groups continue to operate and commit crimes against civilian populations.Also,despite all its conflict management tools,critics of the ICGLR note that it has not been able to prevent or manage the conflict in the CAR.This research attempted to answer the question of the internal and external factors that influenced the ICGLR interventions so that it succeeded in containing the M23 crisis in DRC and failed to prevent and manage the CAR Civil War.To do this,we applied Barry Buzan's Theory of Regional Security Complex to explain the security dynamics in the GLR and the challenges facing the ICGLR in its security policy in Central Africa,more particularly in the resolution of the two conflicts mentioned above.Three initial hypotheses constituting provisional answers to our research question guided us in our investigations.The first hypothesis was that the nature of the conflict affects its management by intergovernmental organizations.In the DRC the M23 rebellion was supported by Rwanda and Uganda,which meant that when the other ICGLR member states and the international community exerted great pressure on both countries by sanctioning Rwanda,these two countries abandoned supporting the rebellion of the M23 and without any support the rebellion could not fight back against the Congolese armed forces supported by the Intervention Brigade of the UN.In the CAR,on the other hand,the conflict was between coalitions of rebels fighting against the government and sometimes against each other in communal violence.This made conflict management difficult for regional organizations.The second hypothesis was that,historically,the ICGLR was created to resolve the conflict in the DRC,which threatened the stability of neighboring countries and the entire region.As a result,the ICGLR became more absorbed by the conflict in the DRC than the conflict in the CAR as the two conflicts were taking place almost during the same period.The third hypothesis was that the presence of a large number of regional and international actors in the conflict in CAR affected ICGLR's ability to manage the CAR crisis.Thus,to answer our research question and verify our hypotheses,the qualitative method was very useful.It allowed us to study and analyze a considerable amount of data thanks to the primary and secondary sources to which we had access.This data come from a large number of resources such as books,scientific articles,reports from different human rights organizations on the two conflicts and armed groups in the GLR,UN Security Council resolutions and the International Pact creating the ICGLR which constitute its legal framework.After analyzing the literature on the subject,we arrived at a series of conclusions.The fact that during the M23 rebellion,the Ugandan president was chairing the ICGLR while Rwanda and Uganda were accused by UN reports of supporting the rebellion for their economic and security interests played a big role in ICGLR's ability and motivation to resolve the conflict.International and regional pressure,combined with US and UK sanctions resulted in Uganda and Rwanda stopping any support for the M23 rebels.Thus,without support the rebels could no longer resist against an offensive attack by the Congolese army supported by the Intervention Brigade of the UN.In addition,the large number of regional and international actors involved in the conflict in the CAR negatively impacted and influenced ICGLR's ability to manage the crisis in the CAR.Indeed,the presence of the Economic Community of African States(ECCAS)which has a mission similar to that of the ICGLR which is to contribute to the Peace,Security and Development of the States of Central Africa and which invested in the negotiations between the parties to the conflict in order to find a solution to the crisis in the CAR prevented the ICGLR from playing any role in the conflict resolution attempts.Also,its conflict management mechanism is more developed compared to that of the ICGLR's;as it already has its own Intervention Force.Also,the nature of the conflict in the CAR made the management of the conflict by international and regional organizations very difficult and complicated.Thus,to the civil war in the country was added communal and religious conflicts.This led to the deployment of several intervention forces such as the African-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic(MISCA),The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic(MINUSCA),the French intervention operation;Sangaris and the European Force in Central African Republic(EUFOR)Intervention Force.All these interventions did not allow the ICGLR to play its role of conflict management as well.Finally,our research allowed us to realize that,although originally created to resolve the crisis in the DRC,the ICGLR is increasingly involved in crisis management in its other member states and as such,we could not confirm that this was a reason that could prevent the ICGLR from managing the conflict in the CAR.This thesis has five chapters.The first chapter is the Introduction which comprises the research background,the statement of the research question,the hypotheses,and the objective of the study,the scope of the research,the literature review,and the sources of data section,the methodology,and the structure of the thesis.The second chapter reviews the conceptual and the theoretical framework of the research.The conceptual framework analyses the concept of security,the concept of conflict,the concept of conflict resolution and the concept of GLR.The theoretical framework analyses an important theory related to this study which is the theory of Regional Security Complex.Chapter three discusses the causes and types of conflicts in the GLR and the legal framework of the ICGLR and its conflicts resolution mechanisms.Chapter four is a comparative analysis of how the ICGLR reacted and tried to manage the two selected cases of conflicts,the M23 rebellion in DRC and the Seleka Civil war in the CAR.Chapter five deals with the conclusion which discusses the important findings and recommendations.