The intensification of tensions in the Great Lakes region in the throes and aftermath of the M23 rebel group takeover of Goma City, North Kivu province in the ever fireborne Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) calls for quick thinking and action among our leaders and ourselves as a collective people.
As someone with relatives and friends in the DRC, and working with the mind of a stalwart of Regional/African Integration and the dimming of borderlines in line with President Yoweri Museveni’s advocacy, it’s very much personal. It’s a worrying situation, aware that this, our region, is often referred to as the “volatile Great Lakes Region.” How much more explosive can it get when there is fire in Sudan, and the world is aghast, then another one breaks out to the Western side of Uganda?
The riots in Kinshasa said to be in reaction to takeover of Goma as reported in the media and the ransacking of the Ugandan, American, Rwandan, French and Kenyan embassies by angry Congolese means that we have a situation boiling up. These mostly youths, if they had access to guns, could become another front, backing latent or new extremist groups working in the large country, against all the countries whose embassies they attacked. Uganda being next door could likely bear much of the brunt of such reprisal attacks, yet we already have the long running fight against ADF.
They say that M23 came from Uganda and, therefore, all its actions are due to the patronage of Ugandan authorities. Are M23 Congolese or are they Ugandans? From what President Tshisekedi allegedly told Rwanda’s Paul Kagame in person, they are Congolese. With this, I think the idea of blaming Uganda for their actions doesn’t stand. Uganda hosts people of diverse nationalities under its generous refugee hosting programs. Being a refugee means that one came in as a fugitive, perhaps with latent aspirations or needs which the host country may not know of. If they returned home with a “self-determination” plan, Uganda can’t be the sower of that seed, unless there is separate information I don’t have in that regard.
I recall before the advent of M23 how some Congolese friends in Kisangani expressed so much hatred and fear of all Ugandans because of what ADF rebels had recently done in Beni and other areas, episodes of massacres-people clubbed or stabbed to death and cooked in pots. And the media, in its reporting would say “ADF, a Ugandan armed group”, not clarifying that it’s a rebel group fighting against Uganda. Whatever atrocities they occasioned on Congolese was part of a campaign of bloodletting that spared no one but Uganda was the number one victim, if the record of atrocities could be profiled very well for all to see.
When the Congolese are angry, it’s pent up anger from some time ago that’s pushing them. I haven’t seen UPDF in the current fighting in the Goma and I don’t think that there are Ugandans within M23 ranks.
The angry Congolese may forget or ignore that UPDF is in partnership with their national army, Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), fighting ADF together under the Operation Shujaa arrangement, which is progressing well. How then can the same brotherly army work for the benefit of the same insurgent group it is clearing out, or any other group whose securities jeopardise the mutual interests of both countries? Someone hasn’t explained to the Congolese very well what’s going or they have been misled.
Rwanda has declared its interests and safeguards in DRC while the Americans, French and Kenyans may have their own questions to answer, or the people are simply looking to attract attention to the situation, in which case they can’t be blamed. Aren’t the Congolese tired of war and suffering, in fact? A country so well-endowed but a net exporter of refugees and with a population perpetually endangered from man-made and natural disasters. It is time that the international community prioritised stability programmes for DRC. Regional efforts must ensue at once but in case some parties aren’t cooperative enough to bring about the needed tranquility, then the task falls on the entire world.
I have heard of the term “silent genocide” various times, intended to describe that much of the bloodletting in one of Africa’s largest nations is “unreported or unacknowledged” but it is just too bad.
If it’s effusive diplomacy we need, let it be done-not burning diplomatic posts; if it’s peace-enforcement we need, let it be effective and wide-ranging enough to pacify that whole quadrangle so that neither Uganda, Rwanda nor DRC has anything to worry about anymore. Drums of war sound louder than drums of peace only among id…s! If there are foreigners stoking the fire, we also need clear terms for their involvement or they stay far off from our midst.
And, for God’s sake, those who don’t yet buy into the idea of Regional Integration need to see the sort of things we are trying to prevent. If our countries prioritised common interests, peace and security partnerships for everyone, trade and business exchanges, social cohesion and so on, nobody would have time to quarrel or fight. The borders are to blame!
The writer is a frontline promoter of E.A Federation and African Integration agenda
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