EngRegional
Fake experts distorting facts about DRC conflict
The
root cause of the current Kinshasa-Kigali tensions is the resurgence of the M23
rebels since late 2021. This is fueled by a large number of media outlets who
hype the crisis with the help of fake experts, often referred to as researchers
on central Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Most
of these ‘experts’ are westerners shaping the narratives to fit their desires. But
the question remains; in a country of more than 95 million people, can the DRC
not provide a credible researcher? Or the political commentators and
researchers living in the region do not fit these media outlets’ agenda?
Unfortunately,
the hyped DRC scholars are ill-informed on what is happening in the east of the
vast country. Those who are informed of what is happening ignore to say the
truth because of their personal interests.
On
January 23, Christoph Vogel and Judith Verweijen wrote an article entitled: “How
to avoid false narratives around DR Congo's M23 conflict” where they discussed
how information warfare is creating real effects on the ground.
Writing
in The New Humanitarian, the duo seemed like good ‘researchers’ when analyzing the
ongoing conflicts in eastern DRC. But they are corrupt, biased and only facilitate
Kinshasa to spread lies to the international community.
They
lie that M23 rebels are the cause of the DRC crisis. They ignore the more than
130 armed groups over there, including the FDLR genocidal militia and the ADF
terror group, who are wreaking havoc in eastern DRC.
“The
M23 is led by Congolese Tutsi and is part of a long line of Congolese rebel groups
with close ties to Rwanda,” stated Vogel and Verweijen.
With
this kind of statement, these ‘experts’ showed Kinshasa’s narrative, and
involved themselves in emphasizing the Congolese government fabrications, while
covering their leadership failures.
The
duo downplayed the statement the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of
Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, made after her visit to the DRC from November
10-13, 2022.
Nderitu’s
said that the current violence and persecution of Congolese Tutsi is being
fueled by the individuals involved in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in
Rwanda, who fled to DRC, forming armed groups such as the FDLR, a genocidal
militia which is still active in eastern DRC.
Instead,
Vogel and Verweijen claimed that FDLR ‘is now a shadow of its former self’.
Facts
and evidence of root causes of the DRC crisis are well documented, with DRC
government failures on top.
For
more than a decade, Kinshasa has lacked the political will to find a
sustainable solution for the M23. The rebels’ grievances are due to the
constant denial by their government to recognize them as legitimate citizens.
Kinshasa brands them as terrorists instead.
The
failure of the UN mission in DRC (MONUSCO), which has been active since 1999,
has contributed to the increase of armed groups in DRC. The blue helmets also overlook
corruption among Congolese officials who sell military equipment and create
factions in the national army, to fill their own pockets instead of protecting
national integrity and sovereignty as they are mandated to.
Christoph
Vogel is one of the developers of the Congo Research Group founded in 2015 by
Jason Stearns. Stearns is an American who pretends to know DRC at all levels, in
and out.
He calls
himself an expert but he is, instead, one of Kinshasa’s hired propaganda guns
for hire.
