Overview of the Current Crisis
In the wake of Democratic Republic of Congo’s elections in December 2023, widely accused of malpractice, the ushering in of president Felix Tshisekedi saw the resurgence of armed conflict in the eastern region of the country. In the early months of 2024, conflicts had escalated enough to garner international attention. The militant group, M23 (March 23 Movement) backed by the Rwandan government faced off against the Congolese troops, causing a wave of displacement and acute humanitarian crisis. This was just a new phase of the decade long conflict in East DRC that has taken close to 6 million lives over 30 years. The number of displaced individuals has crossed well above 7 million. Corruption, massacres and rapes have become commonplace and human rights are constantly being violated by all parties. This devastating conflict has led to acute food shortages and its resulting paralysis of livelihood for millions of people in east DRC.
The conflict is centered around the city of Goma that the militia attempts to capture. In late 2012, M23 launched an offensive, seizing Goma and several other towns and then subsequently got pushed back by the UN forces. The dormant M23 resurfaced in 2022 and seized territory in North Kivu and started to press Goma. In 2023, the EAC (East African Community) supported troops and UN forces failed to stop the advance; EAC and UN started withdrawing. In 2024, M23 closed in on the city. However, the M23 militant group is one among the 100 militia groups that are operating in the region. Although the international condemnation has been directed towards M23, the government has responded by employing nationalist rhetoric to rally countless militia under its banner. This has led to the reckless empowering of multiple armed groups bloating the security issue into further uncertainty.
Rwandan Genocide
Rwanda consists of two ethnic groups: Hutu (majority) and Tutsi (minority). Rwanda had become a breeding ground for ethnic tension even before DRC’s independence and as a result Tutsi minority would pour across the border into eastern DRC. In April 1994, civil war broke out in Rwanda. Hutu militias started massacring Tutsis and moderate Hutus, killing 800,000 to a million people over 100 days in what is now known as the Rwandan genocide. In a counter-offensive, Tutsi rebel group led by current Rwandan President Paul Kagame captured the capital and formed a new government. The Hutu extremist fled into east DRC along with an estimated 2 million Hutu refugees that had feared retribution. Now the complex ethnic structure comes into picture. The east DRC consisted of local tribes, Tutsis and Hutus, while Rwanda had a Tutsi government.
First Congo War
The Hutu extremists in refugee camps within east DRC consolidated and vowed to establish a Hutu government in Rwanda. These Hutu militias attacked Tutsis within Congo, and the Rwandan government armed Tutsi Militias of DRC in response. Parallelly, resentful Congolese had become tired of the then president Mobutu Sese Seko’s corrupt regime. Rebel groups led by Laurent-Desire Kabila attempted to overthrow the government. Rwanda, which accused Mobutu of harboring Hutu perpetrators of genocide sent in its troops in 1996. This sparked the first Congo war. Congo troops, Tutsi Militias, Anti-Mobuto rebel groups launched offensives. Uganda, Eritrea, Angola, and Burundi joined in. The war concluded with a successful overthrow and Laurent-Desire Kabila became the new president of DRC. However, alleged Hutu massacres conducted by Rwandan forces and the forceful control over lucrative diamond and coltan mines, hadcreated the seeds for a second Congo war.
Second Congo War
A diplomatic fallout between the leaders and the forced eviction of Rwandan troops from DRC had reignited ethnic tensions. Rwanda backed a new rebel group and Uganda backed a second rebel group, while seeking to overthrow Kabila. The DRC government armed Hutu groups to fight back and joined forces with support forces from Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola. The second war started merely two years after the first. By 1999, peace talks led to the withdrawal of most foreign forces. One of the Tutsi militias, Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) had written a ceasefire with the DRC government in exchange for being absorbed into the Congolese army. However, a splinter group within the CNDP formed M23, claiming to be fighting for Tutsis’ rights in the DRC. This started the current phase of the crisis.
International Involvement
DRC is home to some of the world’s largest reserves of metals and rare earth minerals like cobalt and coltan. Rich mineral resources are a key factor behind the prolonged nature of the crisis. The armed militant groups battle over the control of these resources. Rwandan and Ugandan troops looted substantial quantities of DRC’s minerals in the previous wars. M23 have secured sizable profits from occupying Tantalum deposits. Not to mention, that these minerals end up in the global supply chain, including the case of the DRC government’s allegation of top MNCs like Apple profiting from the conflict. Countries like Switzerland, China and UAE own mines in east DRC. Countries like France and the United states have long intervened in DRC’s political affairs when they deemed it necessary. The highly unpopular and corrupt regimes like Mobutu Sese Seko’s government were actively supported. It is widely believed that the assassination of President Laurent-Desire Kabila was connected to Rwanda and the United States. Declassified CIA memos show plans to poison the popular leader Patrice Lumumba (DRC’s first president). The same nation finds it difficult to intervene beyond superficial statements of denouncement amidst widespread violation of human rights. It becomes clear that there remains no profit motive to solve the conflict when it can yield greater fruits from a divided DRC, that is up for grabs.
Conclusion
The inaction and indifference to human suffering from the international community warrants us to question the nature of the reasoning that made them maintain this status quo. A status quo that may be beneficial to the imperialist forces but unforgiving to the locals.
