DRC: Foreign mercenaries will escalate conflict in east

Author: Matiya Mulumba

• 2022-12-28 05:29:00

DRC Defence Minister Gilbert Kabanda Kurhenga inspecting arms in Russia in August 2022 as Kinshasa anticipated the lifting of the UN arms embargo. His government has now set in motion plans to hire Russian and French mercenaries to battle the M23 rebels.

In 1914, during World War I, Germany and English soldiers who were at war made a rare truce. They came out of their trenches to play football on Christmas Day. It was a unique truce that showed trust and quest for peace on both sides. It came to be called the Christmas Truce.

As the world prepared to celebrate Christmas, a moment to reflect on acts of love and peace, in remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ, my mind came to the war between the Democratic Republic of Congo forces, FARDC, and the M23 rebels. Could they forge a similar truce?  Alas!  I later found out that I was daydreaming.

Instead of forging a truce, DRC President, Félix Tshisekedi, was busy planning a bigger war than before. This happens at a time the M23 rebels were voluntarily withdrawing from captured territories in a goodwill gesture to give peace a chance and prepare for political negotiations.

Following a visit to Moscow in late August by DRC Defense Minister, Gilbert Kabanda, Western diplomats in Africa expressed concern about a possible deployment of the Wagner Group, also known as PMC Wagner, a Russian paramilitary organization variously described as a private military company, or a network of mercenaries, in DRC.

Wagner, a Russian private military founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been accused of human rights violations in Mali and the Central Africa Republic. The fear by Western diplomats has now become a reality.  Reliable sources informed this website that Tshisekedi hired 100 Wegner Group mercenaries and 103 Ex-French Legionnaires, flown from Bucharest in Romania. They landed in Goma on December 22 and were accommodated in Mbizi hotel.

While attending the Financial Times (FT) Africa Summit in October 2022, Tshisekedi denied he had plans to use mercenaries in DRC, although it was well known that he had already started negotiations with the Russians. When asked in an interview with FT, on plans to use the Wegner Group mercenaries, Tshisekedi said, “I know it’s fashionable now . . . [but] no, we don’t need to use mercenaries, I don’t even know where to find them.” Although FT reporters Roula Khalaf, Davidi Pilling and Andres Schipan called the response a joke, Tshisekedi knew he was openly telling a lie, since his Defense Minister had already initiated discussions with the Russian mercenaries for hire.

Tshisekedi’s resorting to use mercenaries is evidence that his national army which is supported by armed terror groups like FDLR and Mai Mai factions failed to defeat the M23 rebels which Kinshasa refused to recognize as Congolese nationals fighting for a legitimate cause. Kinshasa insists that the rebels are terrorists who have to be removed from DRC territory by force. 

By resorting to use mercenaries, it is clear that Tshisekedi is desperate. His move contradicts ongoing efforts under the Luanda Memorandum of Understanding as well as the Nairobi Initiative to restore peace in his volatile country. 

The presence of mercenaries in DRC should be condemned by the region and the international community as it undermines the decision by the East African Community Heads of State Summit to deploy the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF), which is currently on the ground implementing the peace process roadmap. The EACRF came reinforcing thousands of UN troops (MONUSCO) which have been on the ground for years but only worsening the crisis. 

During the December 13-15 US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC, Tshisekedi deliberately skipped an EAC Summit organized on the sidelines to discuss the implementation of the peace process in eastern DRC. He lied to his colleagues that he had another important meeting in the White House. This was evidence that the DRC leader does not want peace as he prepared for war.

The decision by the United Nations Security Council mid this month to lift a nearly two decades old arms embargo could have been a big mistake driven by Western countries’  greed  to appease Kinshasa so that they can maintain lucrative mineral business deals. The presence of mercenaries means unlimited arms flowing into a corrupt DRC. Such arms will end in the hands of armed terror groups operating in DRC. 

By lifting the arms embargo on DRC, the Security Council therefore opened up another dangerous window that will allow proliferation of illegal arms in the Great Lakes Region.  Although Arms sales to non-governmental armed groups are still banned, the mercenaries belong to this category. The UNSC decision will undoubtedly add fuel to an already burning fire.

Tshisekedi has mobilized Congolese people from different backgrounds to demonstrate against Rwanda, M23 rebels and MONUSCO. He has allowed hate speech and violence against the Tutsi in various parts of the country. He has allowed sanctioned terror groups to fight along with FARDC, hoping to defeat M23 rebels, but the strategy has failed. 

By hiring Russian and French mercenaries, Tshisekedi believes he will wipe out the M23 rebels whom he branded as terrorists. Ironically, as Tshisekedi is openly rejecting the peace roadmap, the US and EU countries are pointing accusing fingers at Rwanda for allegedly supporting M23, yet the same superpowers keep a blind eye on acts of the Kinshasa government aimed at frustrating the peace process.

The terror groups working with FARDC have caused enough havoc in eastern DRC where Congolese Tutsi have been brutally killed, and acts of genocide have been documented. The presence of foreign mercenaries will not solve the decades’ long crisis but will only escalate the already volatile conflict in eastern DRC.