It's not an easy question, and I don't pretend I know the answer. The responsibility to protect speaks about not waiting for the moment, like the one in DRC, in which the government invokes its sovereignty, but working alongside them, supporting them or putting pressure on them to avoid moments like this.
Also, the responsibility to protect has lost some of its credibility, because some important international governments and players have left it and have stopped talking about the responsibility to protect and putting their weight behind it. This all undermines the idea that sovereignty is limited and that civilians and the populations of the country have rights, and that these rights include the right to not be exposed to violence, and that the state is ultimately the first responsible to protect its own civilians.