WeeklySA_AdminSECURITY: Decision follows last week’s heavy losses, in a conflict whose source former president Thabo Mbeki attributes to Kinshasa’s lack of capacity to govern the strife-ridden eastern territory…
By Amanda Khoza and WSAM Reporter
The heads of state from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional bloc consisting of 16 member states, today reaffirmed their commitment to supporting the DRC in its fight against rebel forces, according to a report by Business Insider Africa
This decision was made during the extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Harare, Zimbabwe, to discuss the security situation in the DRC. The SADC military mission suffered heavy losses last week, with around a dozen soldiers from South Africa, Malawi, and Tanzania killed as the M23 rebels seized control of Goma. The group’s chairman, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, called for “bold” and “decisive steps” to boost the force’s capacity.
Mbeki weighs in
Meanwhile, former president Thabo Mbeki says that for as long as the Democratic Republic of Congo refuses to look after the Rwandan-speaking Congolese population in the eastern part of the country, then military groups like M23 will continue to exist. Mbeki shared his thoughts on the current conflict in the Eastern DRC on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) yesterday morning. The former president also said part of the problem in the country is that the Congolese did not have the capacity to govern the eastern part of the Congo, which is why military groups such as M23 emerged.
Mbeki said: “What we need to do with regards to the Eastern Congo is that President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo should say to everybody: ‘I am president of the Congo, and I am president of all of the people, including the Banyamulenge’. And then, the government in Kinshasa needs to improve its capacity to govern in the eastern part of the Congo.” Mbeki’s remarks come during heightened tensions between Pretoria and Kinshasa following the deaths of 13 SA National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers in the eastern DRC conflict. The conflict dominated discussions during a Cabinet lekgotla which was chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on Wednesday.
Kagame tweet
News24 reported yesterday that diplomatic lines with (Rwandan capital) Kigali remained open despite a public spat between Ramaphosa and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Kagame responded in a tweet to Ramaphosa on Wednesday night, accusing him of “distortion” and “even lies” in his communication over the death of South African soldiers in the Eastern DRC. His tweet ended with the statement: “If South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day”. On Thursday morning, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said on X: “We will always stand and fight for peace. We will see through our commitment to Africa’s Agenda 2063!!!!!” Mbeki said: “As you know part of the population in the eastern DRC is Rwandan speaking. Part of the problem in the Congo is that… they refused to believe that Banyamulenge are Congolese.” They might be Rwandan-speaking but these are Congolese and it is the responsibility of any government in Kinshasa to look after this section of the Congolese section like any other but you remember what happened in the BaHutu years.
“BaHutu took the position that these are foreigners. It’s like South Africans saying: ‘There are Tswana-speaking people here in the North West, and suddenly the rest of the country says those are not South Africans; they must go to Botswana.’ What happened in the Congo case… that’s why you had the Mai-Mai emerge in the Eastern Congo.
“The Mai-Mai were specifically targeting the Banyamulenge to drive them out of the Congo into Rwanda. But I am saying it is the responsibility of the government in the central Congo to look after this population, which is Congolese, Rwandan speaking.” Mbeki said the second problem is that the administrative footprint of the government in Kinshasa does not reach the east.
Kabila discussion
“So you find a part of the country which has got a very light experience of being governed by the government in Kinshasa. The country is very big. So, you have a weak government, a weak imprint of the government on the east, and it means that other forces emerge and take over. “You see the M23, you can’t avoid the phenomenon of the M23 as the government of the Congo. Unless you say: ‘We, the Congolese government, will protect the Banyamulonge because these are Congolese.’ If you don’t say that allowing other people to do whatever they wish to the Banyamulenge, then M23 will continue to exist. They will get arms to defend themselves.”
Mbeki said this problem was discussed with President Joseph Kabila. “It’s your responsibility to look after those people in the east.” He went on to say that after the Sun City negotiations, there were discussions on how the nations could be properly integrated into the government of Congo.
“But, that process collapsed somewhere…” Mbeki said Kagame and Kabila said: “You need to govern your relationship in a particular way because part of the problem is that the people who have committed genocide in Rwanda ran over to the Eastern Congo, and so Rwanda is saying. ‘Those ones you are accommodating there, they are ones who want to kill us, they have killed us already and they want to kill us some more’. So how do you govern this relationship?”
Mbeki said the leaders negotiated an agreement about how to interact with each other because “you can’t disentangle them (Rwanda and the DRC)”.
He said an agreement was eventually signed. “I think it collapsed along the way, but you need those processes. The government of the Congo (needs) to take charge of the eastern parts of Congo. “Then, we need an agreement between the DRC, Uganda, and Rwanda to govern the relations among those three. I think that is what we need in order to resolve the problem in the Eastern Congo.” – Fullview, Business Insider Africa
UN COMMUNIQUÉ ON DRC
“United Nations agencies today called for an end to the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as fighting between Government forces and the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group expands.
The rebels have already seized the provincial capital, Goma, and reports indicate that they are closing in on the key city of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province.
The hostilities are occurring in a mineral-rich region that has been volatile for decades amid a proliferation of armed groups, which has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes over the years and seek safety in displacement camps.
A camp in eastern DR Congo provides security for some of the seven million displaced people in the country.
WFP A camp in eastern DR Congo provides security for some of the seven million displaced people in the country.
UN humanitarians warn that the situation continue to worsen for civilians likely trapped by days of intense fighting in and around Goma, which has a population of over one million.
Displacement camps on the city’s outskirts, previously hosting more than 300,000 people, are emptying out as people flee the violence. Medical services are overwhelmed by the number of injured, both civilians and military personnel.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said water and food are running low, and the next 24 hours are crucial.
“People are really running out of food, clean water, medical supplies and that’s a big concern. So, the supply chain has really been strangled at the moment,” said WFP Spokesperson Shelley Thakral.
Several WFP warehouses have been looted and teams are taking stock of what they will need to procure locally and transfer by road to ensure they have provisions once operations resume in the critically affected areas.
WFP’s priority is keeping its staff and their dependents safe, and only critical staff remain in the area who are getting ready to resume operations as soon security permits. Meanwhile, the human rights crisis also continues to deepen in the east.
At least two sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been bombed, causing civilian casualties, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, reported.
Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said OHCHR has documented summary executions of at least 12 people by the M23 between 26 and 28 January.
The Office has also documented cases of conflict-related sexual violence by the army and allied Wazalendo fighters in Kalehe territory, located in South Kivu.
It is also verifying reports that 52 women were raped by Congolese troops in South Kivu, including alleged reports of gangrape.
Meanwhile, in other areas under M23 control in South Kivu, such as Minova, fighters have occupied schools and hospitals, forced IDPs out of camps and subjected the civilian population to forced conscription and forced labour.
Additionally, DRC officials report that at least 165 women were raped by male inmates during the mass prison break from Goma’s Muzenze prison on 27 January, as M23 began its assault on the town.
Laurence recalled that conflict-related sexual violence has been an appalling feature of armed conflict in eastern DRC for decades, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, “is particularly concerned that this latest escalation risks deepening the risk of conflict-related sexual violence much further.“
He said OHCHR continues to receive urgent requests from civilians for protection and is working with UN colleagues and other partners to ensure their safety.
“As M23 reportedly advances towards Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, the High Commissioner calls for an end to the violence and for all parties to uphold their obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” he said.
