Ever since the war between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel group began, Congolese officials have relentlessly used the media to blame neighboring countries, especially Rwanda, for their own failures.

 

Behind closed doors, the Congolese agree and sign agreements but never implement them. But when talking to the media, the Congolese government will report the opposite of what has been agreed on.

 

President Félix Tshisekedi, Prime Minister Sama Lukonde and Government Spokesperson, Patrick Muyaya, have, on several occasions, said that the M23 rebellion is not a Congolese issue, claiming that the rebel group is simply made up of Rwandan troops. Blame games by Congolese officials who seek to rise in politics and, or, attract sympathy among Congolese citizens have become a key political tool for their upcoming December 2023 presidential elections.

 

When Tshisekedi and his delegation were in Luanda for a regional mini-summit, on November 23 – in front of the host, President João Lourenço of Angola, President Evariste Ndayishimye of Burundi, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Vincent Biruta and the EAC facilitator, and former President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta – he acknowledged that M23 are Congolese and should be cantoned in DRC, before the demobilization and repatriation of Congolese refugees.

 

It was the first time that a Congolese leader actually openly admitted that the M23 are Congolese citizens.

 

While in the Angolan capital, Tshisekedi signed an agreement which stressed the need for his government to stop military and political support to the FDLR, a Rwandan genocidal militia that has found a safe haven in his vast country’s east for nearly three decades.

 

However, in September, during the UN General Assembly, Tshisekedi said that the FDLR is nonexistent and therefore not a threat to Rwanda anymore. The militia largely comprises remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They fled to eastern Zaire, now DRC, in 1994, when the current Rwandan government stopped the genocide in which more than one million Tutsi were massacred in 100 days.

 

Patrick Muyaya has also been lying about the threat posed by this genocidal militia whenever he speaks in the media. This contradiction shows the doubles standards and lack of the political, and military, will to uproot the main cause of insecurity in eastern DRC. 

 

According to the Luanda roadmap and the agreements signed on November 23, during the Luanda mini-Summit, FDLR combatants are supposed to lay down their arms and initiate their unconditional repatriation to Rwanda. Political-military support, by Kinshasa, was to be stopped on the day the communique was signed.

 

A day before the mini-Summit, the UN radio in DRC, Radio Okapi, reported that the M23 rebels had engaged the coalition comprising the Congolese army, FDLR, and Mai-Mai Nyatura, on multiple fronts in Kishishe village in Rutshuru territory. The M23 rebels are fighting for the rights of Congolese Kinyarwanda speakers in eastern DRC.

 

The Nairobi and Luanda agreements are not the only agreements that tackle the disbarment and repatriation of FDLR. In July 2002, the Pretoria agreement signed between Rwanda and DRC entailed that Rwanda pulls its troops out of DRC in exchange for international commitment towards the disarmament of all the genocidal militia forces. Failure to implement the Pretoria Agreement led to the creation of CNDP which later became the M23. When Rwandan troops later left Congolese territory, the FDLR attacked the Tutsi Congolese, who then created an auto defense group known as CNDP.

 

The history of the killing of North Kivu’s Congolese Tutsi community, by FDLR, is the key to understanding the motivations and frustrations that led to the birth of CNDP, and later, M23. The DRC government, on March 23, 2009, signed an agreement with CNDP which was not respected, hence the birth of the M23 movement – as a way of reminding the government what it signed. Among others, the March 23 agreements called for the repatriation of Congolese refugees after securing both North Kivu and South Kivu and send Interahamwe back to Rwanda.

 

Instead, Kinshasa chose to deploy former CNDP officers far out of the Kivus while Interahamwe remained very active. This was the main reason why the return of Congolese refugees failed. With the Rwandan genocidal militia wrecking havoc everywhere in the region, the Congolese Tutsi never felt safe to return home.

 

Instead of accepting to be deployed in regions far away from home, CNDP officers defected and formed the M23 group, which is fighting the FARDC-FDLR-Mai Mai Nyatura coalition, among others.

 

 

For the last 22 years, Congolese officials have signed different agreements to bring back peace in east DRC.

 

Their refusal to implement the agreements led to the creation of more and more armed groups simply because of corruption and Congolese troops’ collaboration with local and foreign armed groups.

 

If Tshisekedi really wants peace, he should implement the agreements his government signed rather than creating local armed groups to fight each other.