Ned Price, the US State Department Spokesperson, on January 4, issued a statement saying Washington welcomes the midterm report by the UN Group of Experts released on December 30, and shares the concerns outlined in the report about the sharp increase in violence and the deterioration in the security and humanitarian situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

“Recognizing the leadership of the Heads of State of the East African Community and Angola, we urge Great Lakes leaders and armed actors to expedite implementation of multiple commitments to end the conflict, especially those agreed at the November 23 Luanda Mini-Summit on Peace and Security,” reads the part of the statement.

 

“We expect the UN-sanctioned March 23 Movement (M23) to withdraw to the locations specified in the November 23 Luanda communique, and we call for all armed groups, including M23, to cease all hostilities, lay down their weapons, and join the East African Community-led Nairobi Process consultations between the DRC government and armed groups.”

 

The US government statement says that noting the “report’s clear evidence” of Rwandan support to M23 and “credible” reports of grave human rights abuses by M23, “we reiterate our call for Rwanda to cease all support” to M23 and withdraw its troops from eastern DRC.

 

This statement serves as evidence of how unhelpful external interference in the regional and continental processes by Washington shields Kinshasa from accountability for its unresponsiveness to commitments made through ongoing regional peace efforts and processes. Kinshasa will feel emboldened, and empowered by this US statement.

 

Without ever producing any persuasive or compelling evidence, Congolese and US officials continously allege that Rwanda is supporting the M23 rebels.

 

The quest for long-lasting peace in DRC cannot be achieved by spreading a false narrative. False narratives, such as the ones spread by the State department and other allies of the DRC government, only aggravates problems and puts innocent lives at risk.

 

The conflict between the M23 and the DRC Government is an internal matter. Kigali has, repeatedly, explained that it should neither be a scapegoat nor equated to M23.

 

Distortions such as those spread by Kinshasa, and allies including the US, only mask the real problem and accountability of those who should be answerable for addressing the root causes and drivers of the conflict in DRC.

 

As Kigali already pointed out, a lasting solution requires the responsibility to be placed where it belongs. A dysfunctional government in Kinshasa is one critical factor here.

 

It is important to genuinely examine why the M23 rebels took up arms in the first place. These rebels are not Rwandan. They are Congolese, and one of their grievances is the continued harassment of Congolese Tutsi who are from the same ethnic group that bore the brunt of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The renewed conflict is an internal crisis touching the persecution of Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese. The M23 have national grievances linked to lack of security, discrimination of their community and poor governance at large.

 

Consecutive Congolese regimes have deliberately refused to recognize that the rebels are legitimate Congolese citizens. Whenever there is a political crisis, Kinshasa claims that these people are Rwandans simply because they speak the same language as the people of Rwanda.

 

“We denounce the collaboration between elements of the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and armed groups, including FDLR, as outlined in the report,” the State Department’s statement continues.

 

Clearly, here, Washington is again distorting facts and misleading international opinion. The US government very well knows how the Congolese government has thrown all its weight behind the FDLR, a terrorist militia group formed by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, in stocking hatred and causing insecurity.

 

According to the 2004 “Country Report on Terrorism” released on April 27, 2005 by the US administration, FDLR was designated among the then top 40 foreign terrorist organizations active during the year 2004. It is hypocritical for the US administration, this time round, to gloss over the Congolese government alliance with FDLR by simply “denouncing the collaboration.”  An established government supplying arms and working with a terrorist organization must be sanctioned and held accountable under international law.

 

According to Human Rights Watch, between May and August 2022, the Congolese army with a coalition of armed groups as well as FDLR fought against the M23 rebels in North Kivu province. Senior FARDC commanders, on May 8 and 9, 2022, met with FDLR commanders, and on July 21, the Congolese army’s 3411 regiment provided more than a dozen boxes of ammunition to FDLR fighters in Kazaroho, one of the militia’s strongholds in the Virunga National Park.

 

Additionally, FDLR is more than a terror organization. It is a genocidal force. A force of evil. In collaboration with FARDC, it has committed serious human rights violations against Rwandophones in eastern DRC, with full support of government officials.

 

As documented by Human Rights Watch in 2022, they have raped, burnt Congolese Tutsi alive, cannibalized them, and US authorities now decide to take things lightly. What the FDLR and the Congolese government are doing in eastern DRC is a crime against humanity that must be condemned and brought before international justice. Would the US keep a blind eye if the DRC government collaborated with Al-Qaida? No!

 

The terrorism that affects the US and the terrorism affecting the Great Lakes region of Africa should be condemned in equal measure, rather than setting double standards.

 

By claiming that the genocidal group is only collaborating with some FARDC elements, Washington is attempting to minimize the level and danger of Kinshasa’s collaboration with a genocidal militia that is a threat to the entire region.

 

Not denouncing this collaboration is the same as giving Kinshasa a green light to continue nurturing and proliferating a genocidal force. In so doing, Washington is actually supporting a terror group which it pretends to be fighting.

 

Finally, the State Department urged Congolese officials “to continue speaking out” to condemn “the worrying escalation of xenophobia and hate speech inciting violence against the Rwandophone community in the DRC” and to hold accountable those who employ violence.

 

Ironically, it is these same Congolese officials who have been, and continue, spreading hate speech inciting violence against the Rwandophone community in the DRC. Washington knows this. Why the hypocrisy?

 

Analysts are worried. They expect more and more human rights violations, including genocide, in the DRC with assured impunity because of Washington’s blind eye on the reality for the sake of Cobalt, Lithium and other much sought-after Congolese minerals.