How a U.N. Drone Crashed in Congo and Was Promptly Forgotten
An FP special report from the front lines of the flailing U.N. effort to use drones to save lives in a war-ravaged stretch of eastern Africa.
BY SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
NYIRAGONGO TERRITORY, Democratic Republic of the Congo — On a cloudy October morning last year, an unarmed United Nations drone on a surveillance mission over eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo crashed and burned in farmland just north of the city of Goma. Local residents quickly gathered at the crash site, where U.N. officials later retrieved some of the drone’s pieces, including its black box, radar, and camera system. But its engine and tail arm — clearly emblazoned with U.N. insignia — stayed in a resident’s home in the poor territory for months, and other debris remained untouched in a field whose owner could no longer afford to farm.
