'I truly pray that peace will come to eastern DRC' (By UN News)
Kinshasa, DRC (PANA) - For nearly five years, Bintou Keita led the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), MONUSCO, one of the Organisation's largest peacekeeping operations. On November 30, she bid farewell and departed from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
It is still a little early to take stock, she said, although she shared with UN News some reflections and memories and her pride in having led this mission.
For her, it was “a privilege to have been able to serve the cause of peace, even if peace has not yet arrived in eastern DRC”. "I truly pray that this peace will come, because all the people I met yearn for nothing else," she said, her voice filled with emotion.
As a new year begins, the former head of MONUSCO hopes that all those who have taken up arms will realise that millions of people suffer every day and "sometimes lose hope that their lives can ever be normal".
“We need peace and we need to be able to dream,” she says. “And also to create the space to dream.”
She recalls a visit, "right in the middle of the conflict", to a community cultural centre in Sake, a town about 20 kilometers west of the city of Goma, in North Kivu province. The centre offers young people activities in the areas of culture, civic education, and economic resilience, with the support of the UN.
She remembers Jean-Marie's response, now deceased, to her astonishment at the empty bookshelves. "He looked at me and said, 'Mrs. Keita, it's empty now, but it won't be empty forever.'" She offered to bring some books. "And in no time, the library was full."
When she later returned to North Kivu province, she learned that the young people from the Sake cultural centre were now scattered, displaced because they couldn't stay in the area due to the fighting." So the library will once again have empty shelves, and at some point, we'll have to put the books back there." She received messages from young people at the cultural centre, and "they remain determined to continue contributing to peace". “And that's what I admire, and that's what I'm taking with me.”
Throughout her tenure as head of MONUSCO, Bintou Keita has strived to help women and young people make their voices heard and participate in peacebuilding, because "they experience firsthand what it means to be in a conflict zone, to be displaced four, five, six times, to have their house destroyed, to no longer have access to their fields, to not be involved in discussions, in peace talks".
The UN is striving to include women and young people in peace talks, but "it's not a done deal". "It remains a fundamental battle, and it's not for lack of trying," she adds, noting that women and young people are organizing and "desperately" seeking to be heard. "Women are writing to facilitators, to the United Nations. They're writing to everyone to say: 'Really, do you think this peace you're seeking will happen without us?'"
In recent years, however, she has noted progress thanks to the action of MONUSCO, but "there is still a long way to go" to improve the representation of women and young people in peace processes.
For Bintou Keita, the peacekeeping mission, often criticised, remains relevant, particularly with regard to its primary mandate: the protection of civilians. "It is a tool at the service of the global community."
“We are very often the only ones present on the ground. When there is a problem, despite all the criticism that exists regarding the mission, you know where people run, they run to our bases, they come to protect themselves with the Blue Helmets and that is not something that can be ignored,” she notes.
As she retires, Bintou Keita wants to believe in the ability of human beings to bounce back even after the worst times.
She remembers being on the banks of the river in the Republic of Congo one day while working for UNICEF. “People who had fled fighting and wandered on boats for days and days” arrived. Women, hungry children, wounded people. It was evening. The first boats landed around 10 p.m., carrying families with young children, all exhausted. Trucks were there to transport them to a transit camp.
“We were in the vehicle and at one point, I heard singing. And I thought to myself, this singing must be coming from outside, because I couldn’t imagine that these people, who were so emotionally exhausted, could still have the ability to sing. And my colleague looked at me and said, ‘Bintou, you know, it’s the children who are with us who are singing.’ Even now, I still feel the emotion. Since that moment, I tell myself that even in the worst moments, human beings have this capacity to bounce back, to find something within themselves that is hope.”
-0- PANA MA 4Jan2026
