Regional

DRC government defends Goma carnage. This speaks to Tshisekedi’s failure

2023-09-12 05:30:00

Congolese security forces arrested over 60 protesters on August 30, following an anti-UN protests in Goma, eastern DRC.

Congolese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Peter Kazadi has defended the carnage in Goma, claiming that deployment of Rwandan special forces in areas closer to the town was the main reason for shooting at protestors.

At least 56 civilians were shot dead, 220 injured while more than 60 were arrested on August 30, following crackdown on an anti-UN protests in Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province in eastern DRC.

Kazadi told the Council of Ministers held on September 8 in Kinshasa that the deployment of Rwandan special forces at the common border, a day before the protest targeting the UN mission in DRC (MONUSCO), raised questions.

The protest was organized by a group called the Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations, known colloquially as Wazalendo. Its supporters planned to demonstrate against the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) and MONUSCO.

The DRC government first claimed that the death toll was less than 10, but later, images of Congolese soldiers dragging dozens of corpses and piling them into a lorry went viral.

Congolese army and government spokesman in North Kivu Lt Col Kaiko Ndjike said that the "defense forces had acted professionally."

This is how the armed forces of President Félix Tshisekedi act professionally. Their mission turned from protecting civilians to murdering them for satisfying their Commander-in-Chief's wishes.

A source in Goma who preferred anonymity previously told The Great Lakes Eye that the shooting on protesters was ordered by the Military Governor of North Kivu, Lt Gen Constant Ndima Kongba. Then, the national army indiscriminately opened fire on the protesters.

From lying about the number of victims to declaring that they acted professionally, and then lying that there was deployment of Rwanda’s special force nearer Goma, the DRC government is defending the murder of its own civilians.

Tshisekedi, through his ministers, is justifying why he ordered his armed forces to shoot at unarmed civilians.

The Congolese Minister of Defense, Jean-Pierre Bemba, claimed that in eastern DRC, apart from the incidents that occurred on August 30 in Goma, the security situation in North Kivu is marked by Rwanda’s alleged creation of false groups also claiming to be Wazalendo.

By stating this, Bemba forgot that Tshisekedi himself mobilized Congolese youth to create militia groups in preparation of waging war against Rwanda, the alleged enemy of his regime. Wazalendo is one of the hundreds of militia groups formed in response to the president’s call.

Scapegoating Rwanda has been Tshisekedi’s tactic ever since the resurgence of the M23 rebels. His uses it to justify his incompetence and national army's weakness.

It is time, now, for the Congolese to realize that Tshisekedi is the murderer of his own people, a crime he commits for personal gains.