Clearly, there are no easy answers for Congo. Many analysts say the country has become a sinkhole of foreign aid, with little progress despite billions of dollars poured into it. The central government based in the capital, Kinshasa  essentially on the west coast of Africa  remains dangerously weak while war continues to rage hundreds of miles away in the thickly-forested east. Congolese soldiers often do not receive their pay, decimating their loyalties, while various armed groups, motivated by ethnic, commercial and criminal interests, haunt the hills, preying upon civilians at will.

This has been the situation for years, and the United Nations peacekeepers have an especially difficult task because the two main tenets of their mission  protecting civilians and helping the Congolese Army wipe out rebel forces  often collide.

Recently, the peacekeepers have had to confront this predicament because of the intensity of military activity. A joint Rwandan-Congolese offensive in January against rebel holdouts spurred brutal reprisal killings. Then came the United Nations-backed military offensive, also intended to sweep away rebels, in which the peacekeepers helped plan the maneuvers, resupply Congolese soldiers and transport them to battle zones. Again, hundreds of civilians were killed and thousands displaced. According to human rights groups, it was the Congolese Army that did much of the killing.

“Human Rights Watch documented the deliberate killing by Congolese soldiers of at least 270 civilians,” the organization said in a November report. It also said many of the victims were women and children, and some had been chopped to death by machete.

In November, the United Nations cut off support to a Congolese brigade blamed for massacring civilians. But many human rights groups wanted the United Nations to go further, which was also the advice of the United Nations’ own lawyers.