For years, the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been experiencing violence and extensive abuses of power. Protracted civil wars coupled with the continued mismanagement of state resources placed DRC among the group of fragile states with the world's poorest infrastructure.

No one can understand the situation on the ground without reflecting on the country’s bloody colonial past. The story starts in the 1880s when European powers scrambled for Africa, in what was called The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, also known as the Congo Conference.

In the conference, the second king of Belgians and founder of Congo Free State, current DRC, King Leopold II awarded himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River.

Under Leopold II's administration, the DRC became a humanitarian disaster.

He looted Congolese resources and killed an estimated 10 million people under forced labour. King Leopold's wealth made him the richest man in the world and furnished him with the funds to build in Brussels, Antwerp and Ostend.

Under the cover of propagating Christianity and trade in Africa, Belgium exploited DRC’s mineral resources; ivory and rubber. The colonial state was notorious for its brutal practices, including severed hands, which became its infamous symbol where officials brutally maimed those failing to deliver harvest quotas. Forced labour, corporal punishments, kidnapping, and slaughtering of rebellious villagers were among other atrocities recorded during the period.

The DRC suffered alot under Belgium rule until it achieved independence in 1960. However, on January 17, 1961, the Congolese first Prime Minister immediately after independence, Patrice Lumumba, was executed by a firing squad.  His body was later dissolved in acid and his remains, comprising of only a tooth, were taken to Belgium.

The powers that plotted the assassination of Lumumba believed that due to his popularity among the Congolese people, his grave would be a big monument for the independence hero. His killers never wanted to leave such an important mark as they believed it would be a source of trouble for them.

A Belgian parliamentary investigation into the assassination of DRC's independence hero concluded that Belgium was responsible for his death. In 2002, then prime minister Guy Verhofstadt apologized for Belgian involvement, and the country returned to DRC Lumumba’s tooth 61 years after his murder.

In 2020, Belgium's current king, Philippe expressed deep regret for the "suffering and humiliation" inflicted on DRC during its 75 years under Belgian rule.

The Berlin conference was also referred to as the Congo Conference; because the main point of discussion was to amicably divide resources among Western countries, at the expense of the Congolese people. The DRC's vast resources were at the center of the Conference, a position that has not changed until today within modern Europe.

The European Union, particularly Germany, France, and Belgium, registered significant role in the eastern DRC crisis. Without the Berlin Conference, which partitioned Africa among European colonial powers, the eastern DRC crisis would have not existed.

Rwandophones found themselves in eastern DRC, where the then Rwandan territories of Rutshuru, Bunyabungo, Masisi, Gishali, Tongo and Idjwi, among others, were given to DRC as result of the Belgian administration’s resettlement programme of Rwandese in the Congo – movement de l' installation de la population – implemented from 1931.

Since then, Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese have been persecuted and denied their rights by other Congolese communities with the knowledge of Congolese governments, claiming that they were “foreigners who want to balkanize eastern DRC,” ignoring the fact that they received those people under the partition of borders. If they are accepting the land they received, Kinshasa must also respect the people whom they received under that partition.

Due to this persecution, like its predecessor, CNDP, the M23 rebels have national grievances linked to lack of security, discrimination of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese, and poor governance at large.

The dismissal of the rebels’ complaints, by Kinshasa, led them to take up arms to defend themselves against an existential threat.

The rebels’ demands to their own government have been simple; to be integrated in the national army, protect the lives of the Congolese Tutsi, and be recognized as legitimate Congolese citizens.

Reports indicates that independent and conjoined looters –  sympathized by super power countries -  plunder DRC mineral resources illegally through mafia gangs, and has led to the multiplication of armed groups in the area to over 260, bribery, and violence throughout the country.

The central African country holds two minerals that are sought after all round the world: copper and cobalt. Red-brown copper is used to make electrical wires. Cobalt, a silver-gray metal, is used to make aircraft engines, ink and mobile phone batteries.

With this precious wealth, DRC should have been recognized among the richest countries in Africa, and the world, but the country’s status is disgraceful; external powers conspire with Congolese authorities, who benefit from wars and conflicts, to ensure that DRC does not become a stable and orderly state. They benefit from the chaos and disorder.

With the thirst of staying in power, successive Congolese leaders have become Westerners’ puppets, at the expense of the Congolese people in general.

As a reward, Western powers easily and covertly get full access to the country’s mineral resources.

Since Western powers never want to leave DRC, the latter will always be a complex conflict environment where, unfortunately, poverty and suffering reigns.