DRC crisis: Dialogue with AFC coalition will benefit government more

Author: Jones Mila

• 2024-09-03 06:10:00

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has, on many occasions, showed unconcern towards the AFC/M23 rebels’ demand for dialogue, paralyzing the Nairobi and Luanda peace processes, which should have seen them laying down their arms. The rebels refused to demobilize after Kinshasa rejected their demand.

Despite Congolese leaders knowing that dialogue with the rebel coalition would benefit it more, Congolese president Felix Tshisekedi vowed not to engage in any dialogue with the AFC/M23 rebels, vowing to fight them till the end.

“It’s either complete peace or total war,” Tshisekedi declared.

The Congolese government has invested billions of dollars in purchasing heavy military equipment and logistics, and paying thousands of dollars to eastern European and American mercenaries, local and foreign militia groups, as well as Burundian troops, to fight AFC/M23.

However, Tshisekedi’s strategy has not been effective. Kinshasa has suffered huge losses while the rebels expanded their area of influence by capturing swathes of territory.

The Congolese army and its vast allied coalition with over 40,000 soldiers, almost five times larger than the rebel coalition’s personnel, started heavy attacks against the rebels since October 2023. However, the rebels keep on advancing, and capturing territory after territory.

The rebels control towns such as Bunagana, Kiwanja, and Kitchanga, and the strategic town of Kanyabayonga while also surrounding Rubaya, Rutshuru, and controlling vital access roads to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

According to M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, the rebel group is not in the campaign to conquer territories, but found itself “obliged to silence” the enemy's heavy artillery, drones and combat tanks at their source in order to protect the population.

By February 2023, the UN Refugee Agency reported more than one million Congolese refugees and asylum-seekers in countries bordering DRC fleeing persecution and death.

The number is increasing day by day as hostilities keep growing.

The AFC/M23 alone have managed to coordinate the return of more than 400,000 internally displaced persons to their places of origin. This shows what could happen if Kinshasa agreed to cooperate.

Political analysts suggest that Kinshasa needs to shift its approach, especially given the increasing difficulty of sustaining the situation on the ground. Aligning with the AFC/M23 could help Kinshasa regain lost territories and facilitate the repatriation of more Congolese refugees as well as ending the decades-long crisis in eastern DRC.

For the past three decades, eastern DRC has served as a safe haven for over 260-armed groups, involved in extorting citizens, robberies and murder, and engaging in the illegal trade of minerals.

However, the territories captured by the AFC/M23 have seen more stability, with civilians feeling safer under rebel control. For the Congolese population, AFC/M23 are not rebels but freedom fighters.

If the Congolese government were to accept dialogue with AFC/M23, they would probably work together in weakening the myriad-armed groups operating in the country’s eastern region, including FDLR, a genocidal militia implicated in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, which is the center of DRC’s conflicts with neighboring Rwanda.

The FDLR militia group is a threat to regional peace and security not only due to the massacres targeting the Congolese Tutsi but also for spreading its genocidal ideology across the region.

Congolese leaders are lucky that AFC/M23 accepts dialogue. The rebellion's demand is that their government integrates them into the national army, protects the lives of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, and recognizes them as legitimate Congolese citizens. Successive Congolese government denied their rights to citizenship and security.

Dialogue is the only viable path to a sustainable solution for the ongoing hostilities in eastern DRC. However, Kinshasa continues to favor military intervention, thereby exacerbating the crisis.