United Nations Force Intervention Brigade
The United Nations Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) is a military formation which constitutes part of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). It was authorized by the United Nations Security Council on 28 March 2013 through Resolution 2098. Although it is not the first instance in which the use of force was authorized by the UN, the Force Intervention Brigade is the first UN peacekeeping operation specifically tasked to carry out targeted offensive operations to "neutralize and disarm" groups considered a threat to state authority and civilian security. In this case, the main target was the M23 militia group, as well as other Congolese and foreign rebel groups. While such operations do not require the support of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), the Force Intervention Brigade often acts in unison with the FARDC to disarm rebel groups.
Brigadier-General James Aloizi Mwakibolwa (Tanzania) who served as the FIB's first commander and presided over the operations against M23
Tanzanian FIB soldier in Kiwanja, near Goma, in 2013. These soldiers were a platoon of the Tanzanian Special Forces attached to Task Force Alpha.
FIB vehicles outside Goma in October 2013 during the unit's counteroffensive against M23 rebels
A South African Denel Rooivalk attack helicopter serving with the FIB, photographed in Sake in 2014
The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or MONUSCO, an acronym based on its French name Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo, is a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which was established by the United Nations Security Council in resolutions 1279 (1999) and 1291 (2000) to monitor the peace process of the Second Congo War, though much of its focus subsequently turned to the Ituri conflict, the Kivu conflict and the Dongo conflict. The mission was known as the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo or MONUC, an acronym of its French name Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies en République démocratique du Congo, until 2010.
An IDP camp around a base in Kitshanga
Czech soldier in MONUC, c. 2006
Indian peacekeepers on duty, protecting aid workers.
Members of Uruguayan Riverine Company patrolling Lake Tanganyika, March 2012