For those who are unfamiliar with the current situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there is a decades-long conflict in the eastern provinces of the country. The conflict, also known as Africa’s World War or the Great War of Africa, has claimed the lives of at least six million people since its inception in 1996.
Today, over 25 million people are in dire need of humanitarian aid, and over seven million people are displaced. At the height of the war, it was reported that over 45,000 people were killed every month due to the conflict in the DRC. Some experts estimate that the death figure could be even higher.
The eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri have been particularly affected, with ongoing violent conflicts resulting in long-term displacement. Around Goma, the capital of North Kivu, in eastern DRC, informal displacement sites have emerged. Many others have taken refuge in South Kivu Province. Furthermore, armed groups are making things worse in places like Beni in North Kivu and Bunia in Ituri. Violence, displacement, and food.
In addition to the escalating violence, severe weather events are further aggravating the situation by destroying lives and livelihoods. Hundreds of people died and over 3,000 homes were destroyed in the early May 2023 floods in South Kivu, escalating the already dire circumstances in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
For more than 30 years, the DRC has been racked by conflict, and its insecurity is caused by complex and deep-seated factors, as well as a multitude of actors. The DRC crisis originally began as a result of a series of post-colonial battles for power after independence from Belgium in 1960. These battles culminated in the assassination of popular leader Patrice Lumumba and the three-decade military rule under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. When ethnic tensions in Rwanda forced more than 300,000 people from the Tutsi minority group to flee to neighbouring countries in the 1960s, especially to the DRC, things took a bad turn. Some of those refugees regrouped and tried to take power in Rwanda after the country gained independence from Belgium in 1962.
The DRC also witnessed the spread of civil war and the subsequent genocidal events in its neighbouring country, Rwanda. In October 1990, a group of Tutsi rebels called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda from their base in Uganda and started a war. The current president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, led that group.
In April 1994, extremist Hutu militias attacked Tutsis and moderate Hutus and killed 800,000 to a million people in what is now called the Rwandan genocide. The majority of Rwanda’s population are Hutus. As Hutu genocides, troops, and former regime leaders fled to the DRC, Kagame’s RPF seized the capital, Kigali, on July 4. An estimated two million Hutu civilians fearing revenge and reprisal attacks also poured into the DRC, mostly the eastern part of the country.
Hutu militias that had fled to refugee camps in eastern DRC began to regroup to restore a Hutu government in Kigali. They launched attacks on Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of Congo and also executed Tutsis within the territory of the country. Rwanda responded by arming Tutsi militias inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo in response.
Many Congolese were displeased with Mobutu’s corrupt rule across the DRC. There were rebel groups that tried to overthrow him, including the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Rwanda, which had accused Mobutu of harbouring Hutu perpetrators of genocide, provided arms to the rebels and deployed Rwandan troops in 1996.
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Rwanda’s action caused the Tutsi-led AFDL in Kivu and Rwandan soldiers to attack eastern DRC, which started the First Congo war on October 24, 1996. Uganda, Eritrea, Angola, and Burundi, all of which were Rwanda’s allies, joined the war. The AFDL went on to seize power on May 17, 1997, ending the fighting. Kabila declared himself president of the DRC.
After he became president, Kabila fell out with Kagame and started to force Rwandan and other foreign troops out of the DRC. This incident caused alarm among the ethnic Tutsis living in Congo and rekindled tensions with the local tribes. Rwanda responded by supporting a new rebel group, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), which launched a revolt in August 1998 and started the Second Congo War. Along with the RCD, a parallel group called the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) sought to overthrow Kabila from power.
Kabila’s government proceeded to provide arms to Hutu refugees in the east to retaliate against Rwanda and the RCD. Congolese Government officials went on to publicly incite Congolese people to attack Tutsis. This led to a number of public lynching. The South African Development Community (SADC), of which the DRC is a member, decided to get involved by sending troops from Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola to fight the RCD and Rwandan troops.
In 1999, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda reached an agreement to cease their hostilities. These agreements were referred to as the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement of 1999 and the Luanda Agreement of 2002. The agreements also prompted the United Nations to dispatch MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) troops to oversee the peace process. However, fighting persisted in many areas, such as the gold-rich Ituri, where ethnic tensions, worsened by the war, erupted into the continuing Ituri conflict.
Rwanda and other foreign nations complicated role in the DRC conflict
Rwanda, an ally of the United States, has been documented to have invaded the Congo twice between 1996 and 1998. According to experts, Rwanda’s involvement in the DRC crisis is not aimed at pursuing Hutu perpetrators of genocide, but rather at capturing and safeguarding areas that possess vital natural and mineral resources.
Rwanda’s backing for the M23 rebel group has led to the death and displacement of millions. Some observers have compared the situation in the DRC to the worst human rights violations in recent times since the beginning of the conflict. Even the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva deemed the Congo crisis as war crimes against humanity and a potential genocide.
The 20-year conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has seen other African nations take an active role in resolving it, rather than merely reaping the rewards. One of the regional communities in Africa that played a significant role in resolving the conflict was the Southern African Development Community. South Africa was one of the countries in the SADC that sought a lasting solution to the crisis.
In late 1996, South Africa agreed to join a multinational force that was being established in eastern Congo to handle the instability. This was the period when Zaire (Congo) was admitted as a member of the SADC in 1996 with the help of Nelson Mandela.
Confronted with both internal and external pressure, Sese Seko Mobutu, the former leader of Congo, requested that South Africa initiate a dialogue with Laurent Kabila’s Alliance of Democratic Forces. This was because Laurent Kabila’s African Democratic Forces (ADF) were already gaining ground towards Kinshasa, the capital of Congo. There had already been an earlier meeting of peace talks that failed to yield any resolution.
The president at the time, Nelson Mandela, supported a dialogue between both leaders and believed that a resolution to the conflict could be found by involving both leaders. The goal was to make Mobutu step down with respect and make Kabila accept a new government that included everyone. The US government, for its part, persuaded Kabila’s ADF to attend the dialogue meeting, scheduled for February 1997, in South Africa. The meeting was rescheduled for May 4th on a South African naval vessel at Pointe Noire, which is near the Congo River.
Kabila decided not to show up because of the advancement of the rebel forces, which slowed down his enthusiasm for a long-term resolution. His attitude and his inability to attend the dialogue meeting angered Mandela. Kabila, however, cited fears for his safety as a reason for not joining the talks.
Kabila later came to Cape Town to brief Mandela on the proposals drawn up after the first meeting, which had been widely consulted by governments in Africa, France, and the United States. The meeting between Kabila and Mandela also prompted both leaders to appeal to all heads of state in the region to refrain from engaging in military operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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As the conflict with the rebel forces took a novel and perverse turn in 2012, the Democratic Republic of Congo once again requested the aid of SADC to assist its military in the ongoing conflict. This occurred during the M23 group’s rebellion in 2012. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) decided to intervene, sending troops from Tanzania, South Africa, and Malawi under the military brigade known as the FIB (Force interval Brigade). The presence of SADC soldiers and the Congolese military on the ground proved to be very effective in getting rid of the M23 rebels for a long period of time.
In 2023, Congo agreed to become a member of the East African Community (EAC). This agreement provided for the deployment of additional EAC troops from Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda in the Congo as a component of a regional peacekeeping force. The decision to allow the deployment of troops from the Eastern African Community was unable to prevent the resurgence of the M23 rebels. The M23 started a new uprising in the year 2021.
When the Congolese government realized that the crisis was getting worse, they asked for the EAC troops to leave. They instead resorted to the SADC forces, aware of their positive contribution to the crisis in 2012, and decided to re-engage with them. This led to the deployment of 2,900 soldiers by South Africa as part of the first intervention brigade, bolstering the already present DRC troops.
In February 2024, two soldiers from South Africa were killed in a mortar attack by the M23 near the eastern city of Goma. This was not the only mortar strike to hit Goma. Since the beginning of 2024, a total of four bombs have claimed the lives of numerous Congolese in an attempt by the M23 to regain control over the city of Goma, which has a population of two million.
What is an astonishment to many international political analysts is the nature of the weaponry employed by the M23. The M23 possesses many sophisticated weapons that have become a source of concern for both the Congolese government and its citizens.
In an interview with France 24, António Guterres, the UN Secretary General, stated that the UN forces are unable to confront the M23 forces due to their highly sophisticated weapons. In addition, it was discovered that the M23 rebels might have better weapons than the UN forces on the ground.
According to the United Nations Group of Experts on Congo, in addition to its mobile SAM units, it appears that the M23 possesses a plethora of weapons against aircraft, including anti-aircraft guns and MANPAD [portable surface-to-air missile] mobile air defence systems. Moreover, it has been reported that the M23 is also equipped with GPS-guided 120 mm mortar rounds. This has sparked widespread protests in the Congo regarding the acquisition of such weapons by the M23. Many Congolese now hold the belief that the M23 rebels are merely a Rwandan proxy militia, backed by the Rwandan defence forces.
How western nations are fuelling the bloodshed in the DRC
Over the past few months, large numbers of Congolese have protested against the Belgium, United States, United Kingdom, and French embassy, accusing them of being the main perpetrators of the ongoing conflict in the country. Many people are wondering how Rwanda, which is only about the size of Kinshasa and has close to 15 million people, can still be involved in the conflict in the DRC even though it doesn’t have a weapons factory.
This is the first time that Congolese have turned out in large numbers to protest against the United States and the rest, referring to them as imperialist forces playing the behind-the-scenes role in the crisis. These protests were initiated by the continued advance of the rebel movement M23 and the subsequent loss of innocent lives.
Not only do they desire accountability from the United States, but they also place blame on the UN forces known as MONUSCO for their ineffectiveness. The Congolese people are also dissatisfied with the administration of President Tshisekedi, claiming that the government hasn’t done enough to address the crisis.
Most Congolese believe that Belgium, the United States, United Kingdom, and France are using Rwanda to cause instability to steal their resources. It is generally acknowledged that Rwanda has played a significant role in the DRC conflict by providing assistance to the M23 rebels over the years. Even the United States has acknowledged that Rwanda supports the M23 rebels, but it continues to provide military aid to them.
Rwanda receives millions of dollars in military assistance from the European Union, the United States, and the UK. In February 2024, it was also reported that Rwanda had procured anti-drone radar military weapons from Poland, a week following the departure of the Polish president from Rwanda. Many believe that the Polish-made military weapon was intended for use in the DRC battle. The United Kingdom has remained silent regarding the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some will argue that the United Kingdom is largely ignoring the DRC crisis because it’s shelling out $150 million to the Rwandan government to take in single male travellers who arrived in their country illegally. Belgium and France persist in providing economical and military aid to Rwanda, despite its involvement in the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As of now, the Congolese people are united in a single voice. They call on nations like Rwanda, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom to close their embassies and leave the Congo to ensure stability in their nation.
Source
A guide to the decades-long conflict in DR Congo – Al-Jazeera
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