In 2021, armed conflict and natural disasters caused massive population movements and protection incidents in an overall context of poor access to quality basic social services, weak social protection and development policies and deep gender inequalities.
Of recent, it is the rising violence in the Eastern part of the country that has drawn international attention as the Congolese army is up in arms against the reconstituted rebel movement called the M23. The US Department of Defense think tank, Africa Centre for Strategic Studies warns that if the escalating violence goes unchecked, it risks plunging The Great Lakes region into an interstate conflict that may further complicate the existing humanitarian crisis in the country.
It is important to note that there are more than 100 armed groups that operate with impunity in Eastern DRC, an unsettled region which has endured decades of conflict but has escalated in recent months. The death toll from this violent conflict is estimated at more than 8,000 people since 2017. In addition there are close to six million people who have been internally and externally displaced.
The estimates from the United Nations point to 700,000 of those displaced in 2022 alone. Political observers and humanitarian organisations opine that the situation in Eastern DRC is the world’s most overlooked and under-addressed refugee crisis in recent times.
What fuels the insecurity in the region is a complicated brew of geopolitics, ethnic and national rivalries and serious competition for the control of a vast array of natural resources that are abundant natural resources. What is worrisome is that the conflict has escalated tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, some of which linger from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which ethnic Hutus killed roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Competition for resources and influence in the DRC also sharpened long standing rivalries between Rwanda and Uganda.
The government of the DRC accuses Rwanda of giving armed support to the M23 rebels. The leadership of the M23 rebels consists of ethnic Tutsis with historical ties to Paul Kagame and the Rwanda Patriotic Front. For example, M23 leader Colonel Sultani Makenga is an ethnic Tutsi who fought alongside Paul Kagame in their quest to stop the genocide and eliminate the Enterahamwe (a Hutu extremist group) that was instrumental in the madness of 1994. On the other hand, Rwanda makes some counter accusations that the DRC is backing the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which is a Congolese-based mainly Hutu rebel group that includes some fighters who were involved in the genocide. This has set the two countries at loggerheads with each other. The resurgent M23 armed with sophisticated weaponry and a plethora of many rebel groups in the region has impacted very negatively on civilian populations resulting in a humanitarian catastrophe.
Besides the inter-state rivalry between the DRC and Rwanda, there is a longstanding rivalry between Uganda and Rwanda in the DRC and the Great Lakes region, which is another key driver of the current crisis. In actual fact the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies stated in its recently released report that there is a profound level of mistrust at all levels between the DRC and its neighbours, particularly Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, as well as between all of these neighbours.
In late November 2021, Uganda and the DRC began a joint military operation in North Kivu to hunt down the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group of Ugandan rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group, which Uganda has blamed for suicide attacks in Kampala in October and November 2021. Ugandan officials have accused Rwanda of using M23 to thwart its efforts against the ADF. According to Professor Stearns, a research fellow at the Congo Research Group, said the joint Ugandan-DRC military operation created “geopolitical ripple effects in the region” with Rwanda essentially complaining that Uganda’s intervention “encroaches” on its sphere of interest in eastern Congo.
On resource competition, it is evident that some of the fighting is over control of eastern DRC’s vast natural resources, including diamonds, gold, copper and timber. The country has other minerals such as cobalt and coltan needed for batteries to power cell phones, other electronics and aircraft. T
here is ample evidence that suggest that Ugandan and Rwandan backed rebel groups that include M23 enjoy massive control but informal supply chains running from mines in the region into the two countries and these groups use the proceeds from the trafficked minerals to buy an assortment of weapons of war, recruit and control artisanal miners and pay corrupt Congolese customs and border officials as well as soldiers and the police.
Weak governance and the prevalence of many armed groups have subjected Congolese civilians to widespread rape and sexual violence, massive human rights violations, and extreme poverty. The escalating violence has destroyed many health facilities across the eastern part of the country thus wiping out large stocks of vaccines and many schools have been damaged or looted leaving thousands of children with no access to education and health. This lack of access to shelter, nutrition, health and education leaves children particularly vulnerable to abuse, violence and exploitation. UNICEF has received more than 200 allegations of serious child rights violations, such as rape, killing and maiming, attacks on schools and health centres. The dire security situation in Eastern DRC has deteriorated to such levels that if not acted upon quickly, would forcibly endanger even more children.
Despite the Munosco (UN backed stabilisation force) and Intervention Brigade Force (backed by SADC), stability and peace has continued to be elusive. In August 2022 the President of the DRC, Felix Tshisekedi was elected as chairperson of the SADC bloc at the 42nd Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government held in the DRC. A communiqué released after the summit about the DRC is very brief and does not give a detailed report on what strategy the regional bloc has to bring peace and stability except “expressing concern and solidarity on the latest development in eastern DRC and giving mandate to the Chairperson of the Ministerial Committee of the Organ, supported by the Organ Troika FIB Troop Contributing Countries to engage the UN Secretary on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September 2022 to explore avenues to support efforts towards improving the security situation”. Meanwhile the situation in the DRC continues to deteriorate and it remains to be seen on what next step the international community will take to assist the long suffering people of the Eastern DRC.
