Two political opponents, Martin Fayulu and Augustin Matata Ponyo, as well as a civil society figure, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, painted, in a joint statement published on Monday, a gloomy picture of the general situation prevailing in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
One of the questions on which they expressed themselves concerns the security situation, particularly in the east of the country where the M23 rebellion, which would be supported by Rwanda, is carrying out a massacre of the civilian population and continues to keep certain localities under its control. .
While the DRC is threatened with “fracture” and “balkanization” and, “instead of providing the country with an effective army”, “the government has favored a policy of outsourcing national security to foreign forces and worse, to states at the base of the destabilization of the country”, they castigate.
As a reminder, a regional force from the Community of East African States (EAC) has been deployed in eastern DRC to “impose peace” on the armed groups that have been active there for three decades. The decision was taken at an EAC summit of which the DRC is a member after Tshisekedi came to power. But the opposition is against this resolution, questioning the sincerity of certain states in the sub-region, such as Rwanda, which takes advantage behind the insecurity to plunder the wealth of the DRC.
Moreover, the three men demand “the severance of diplomatic relations with Rwanda and the closure of all borders” between the DRC and Rwanda which “attacks” their country “through its M23 auxiliaries”.
On December 23, the M23 announced a ceremony organized to hand over the strategic town of Kibumba (one of the localities it controls) to the regional military force of the EAC. But the next day, the Congolese army explained that the withdrawal of the M23 from this city was only a “decoy” and that the rebellion was trying to grab other places instead.
“The disengagement announced with pomp” by the M23 “supported by the Rwandan Defense Forces is a decoy and a simple advertisement to distract the Congolese and the international community”, she affirmed.
Fayulu, Matata and Mukwege also demanded “the firm condemnation of Rwanda by the United Nations Security Council”, as well as “the immediate withdrawal of M23 elements from all the positions they occupy”.
Among the armed movements present in eastern DRC are also the Rwandan group FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) and the Ugandan group ADF (Allied Democratic Forces). The three Congolese personalities demanded “the displacement far from the DRC” of these Rwandan and Ugandan elements.
For these men, the chaotic situation that the DRC is currently going through is “the result of a crying deficit of leadership and governance on the part of an irresponsible and repressive regime”.
By OMA Newsletter N° 993 of 27/12/2022
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
