War continues to rage in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite the recent formation of a power-sharing government in Kinshasa that incorporates leaders of the country's two main insurgent groups. Conflict in the remote Ituri province continues and will continue so long as Kinshasa is unable to exert control over the entire country. Some 53 people reportedly were killed July 15 in Tachioma, 30 miles east of the French-protected city of Bunia, when ethnic Lendu fighters and Congolese Rally for Democracy-Kisangani (RCD-L) militants attacked the mainly Hema village. Though roughly 1,000 French soldiers are stationed in Bunia, their United Nations mandate prevents them from intervening in events beyond the city limits — so the fighting has merely moved as a result. The main mission of the French-led EU force is to stabilize the area until a larger force deployed under the aegis of the U.N. Mission to the Congo (UNMONUC) can be dispatched for more comprehensive peacekeeping operations. Some 140 replacements from Bangladesh already have arrived — the first of 3,800 Bangladeshi soldiers expected to be deployed to Bunia by Sept. 1. Nepalese troops and others will also be involved. The peacekeeping mission remains a necessity, given the schism between events in Kinshasa and those in Ituri. At its core, that schism concerns geography, politics and, perhaps more important, geology. Because of its mineral wealth — including diamonds and coltan (a mineral used in cell phone manufacturing) — Ituri province is a battle ground for various armed groups, political movements and governments. It also is believed that oil lies just below the surface of the province. 
Though Belgian company Petrofina explored the area decades ago and found nothing conclusive, a study by Canada's Heritage Oil Corp. since has yielded more promising results. Seismic tests have indicated that 1 billion barrels of oil could lie just beneath the Ugandan-DRC border, within Ituri province, but more tests are required to determine the true size of any reserves. Ugandan and Rwandan forces have exploited the rivalry between the Hema and Lendu tribes in the past to profit from arms sales and illicit diamond and mineral trades. Though both countries pulled their regular troops out of the region some time ago, Uganda still wields influence there by virtue of armed proxy groups. Those proxies and the local ethnic groups themselves clearly understand the value of Ituri province's mineral resources — and now that a new government is solidifying in Kinshasa, it is more important to them than ever to try and seize control of the region. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and whoever controls the oil- and mineral-rich lands will have leverage in dealing with the new government. When the dust settles from the government restructuring and officials in Kinshasa begin to look to consolidate their control over the country's outlying regions, any existing profit-sharing deals will be subject to renegotiation or review. South Africa-based DeBeers has already announced plans to return to the DRC, now that its diamonds no longer are classed as illegitimate commodities on the international market. Although DeBeers has not given a date for the launch of operations in the DRC, its plans to do so highlights the pressure under which the various rebel groups are operating: For whichever groups are unable to seize control of the country's mineral wealth while Kinshasa is vulnerable, the window of opportunity to force financial concessions from the government and outside corporations will be lost.
