Kinshasa agrees to fight FDLR

Author: Jones Mila

• 2024-08-12 05:30:00

FDLR members.

Intelligence experts from Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Angola, concluded their discussions on the security situation in eastern DRC, on August 8, according to the Angolan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kinshasa has tirelessly harbored and supported the genocidal group in a bid to destabilize neighboring Rwanda; and the vast country’s officials denied any collaboration with FDLR despite the overwhelming evidence to the fact.

However, Sources close to The Great Lakes Eye revealed that, in this very meeting the Congolese government finally agreed to fight FDLR.

The question that raised eyebrows is, would only disarming FDLR be the end of conflicts in eastern DRC?

The meeting was a follow up to the July 30 meeting of foreign ministers from the three countries, which ordered a ceasefire in eastern DRC’s North Kivu Province where the Congolese army is battling the M23 rebel group which formed an alliance with other armed groups to form Congo River Alliance, known by its French name Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC).

The ministers directed the intelligence experts to review a plan devised by the Congolese government for the neutralisation of FDLR, a DRC based terrorist group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The proposed plan for the neutralisation of FDLR was developed after the first meeting of the three countries’ foreign ministers in March.

For three decades, a lack of good will on the part of successive Congolese governments and lack of commitment on the part of the international community have been the major factors underlying the failure to neutralize FDLR.

A June 2024 report by the UN Group of Experts on DRC highlighted Kinshasa’s growing use of FDLR to fight AFC/M23 rebels, thereby escalating the conflict and chaos in eastern DRC.

Kinshasa said it will never acknowledge the Kinyarwanda speaking community as Congolese and since then, they engaged in ethnic cleansing against them. The Congolese army also provided military equipment and financing to FDLR in exchange for its role in fighting this community, AFC/M23, in violation of the arms embargo.

“As long as I hold the presidency of the DRC, I will never allow a delegation from the March 23 Movement (M23) or the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) to negotiate in front of me. I have expressed a desire to talk with Rwanda, not to negotiate,” Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi declared on August 6, while in Brussels, Belgium, on Top Congo Fm.

Probably DRC is committed to disarm FDLR, but disarming them will not completely bring peace in eastern DRC because Kinshasa is still fighting the AFC/M23 rebels.

Tshisekedi’s refusal to negotiate with AFC/M23 rebels does not give hope for peace in eastern DRC. As Kinshasa even went further, branding M23 as terrorists and some are being prosecuted in absentia and sentenced to death, which hinders all regional efforts towards peace.

The conflict and war in eastern DRC is between the Congolese government and AFC/M23 rebels. So, disarming FDLR alone without finding a durable solution to the problem of the Congolese Kinyarwanda-speaking community will not yield any solution.

If Kinshasa really wants to bring peace to eastern DRC, it should hold dialogue with M23 and get to the root cause of the problem. Otherwise, military interventions will keep failing and only put Congolese in danger since it has never been a solution to a political problem.