SADC trapped in Tshisekedi’s lies

Author: Samson Kasujja

• 2023-05-11 05:31:00

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) got trapped into Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi’s fabrications and agreed to deploy a force in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, hoping to restore peace and security there.  

The decision followed an extra-ordinary summit of Organ Troika, plus SADC Troika and Force Intervention Brigade troop contributing countries Heads of State and Government, held on May 8, in Namibia.

The summit approved the deployment of a SADC Force within the framework of the SADC Standby Force as a regional response in support of the DRC to restore peace and security in eastern DRC.

Few hours after the summit, Tshisekedi traveled to Gaborone, Botswana, where he declared that the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) will have to leave his country definitively in June, if the results of its mission are “not satisfactory”.

While the SADC’s resolution is hopeful in bribing back peace, it shows that the southern African bloc fell for Tshisekedi’s crafted lies.

Related: SADC troops won’t solve eastern DRC crisis. Here’s why

The DRC head of state is trying to eliminate every kind of force in his country that refused his wishes of attacking the M23 rebels. All he wants is an offensive force that will apply military means, in spite of political dialogue proposed by EAC leaders to end conflicts in eastern DRC.

Tshisekedi’s declaration in Gaborone showed his masked agenda of pretending to be committed to the peace processes while he is actually frustrating regional peace processes.

The Congolese president has sabotaged all efforts made by the East African Community to stabilize eastern DRC. The Nairobi and Luanda processes set patterns to which Kinshasa and the M23 rebels had to go through to halt conflicts, but at the end Kinshasa behaves like an unconcerned party.

In an interview with France 24 on May 7, Angola's President João Lourenço who is the mediator in DRC-Rwanda tensions explained that the M23 rebel group is committed to abiding by the Luanda roadmap and was upholding a ceasefire reached a few weeks ago. Tshisekedi claims that Rwanda is supporting the rebels, an accusation denied by Kigali.

“We have to be optimistic that the M23 will uphold their commitment,” Lourenço said. Tshisekedi is not worried about hundreds of thousands of Congolese civilians fleeing to neighboring countries, millions of other internally displaced people and those dying as conflicts persist.

He is overseeing the looming genocide against Congolese Tutsi, whose relatives in the M23 rebellion are fighting the existential threat posed by armed militia including: FDLR, Nyatura, PARECO, CODECO and Mai Mai. The FDLR are remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The EAC force was deployed in November 2022 to occupy localities which M23 had withdrawn from in accordance with the Luanda peace processes, but Tshisekedi wanted the force to attack the rebel group to satisfy his ill wishes.

After dashing his expectations, Tshisekedi pressured and intimidated EAC force commander, Gen Jeff Nyagah, who eventually resigned on April 27.

Related: DRC: What’s the implication of EACRF commander's resignation?

With Tshisekedi approaching the end of his five-year tenure and having nothing to show the Congolese that he has achieved, he is leaving no stone unturned to escalate conflicts in eastern DRC so that the December elections will be postponed so that he stays in office.

Regional leaders and political commentators have on many occasions shown that the security crisis in DRC is an internal political problem that needs political solutions through dialogues between all concerned parties. Even all agreements between Kinshasa and armed groups including M23 noted the need for political solutions.

By SADC deploying an offensive force in eastern DRC to fight the M23 for Tshisekedi, they could win a battle but not a war.

The UN Mission’s Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) won a battle against M23, 10 years ago. But the rebellion has reemerged because the war would not be won without understanding its root causes.

By deploying a new force, is SADC serving Congolese citizens or Tshisekedi’s personal interests? Or, does SADC want to ruin all efforts made by EAC leaders and downplay the Nairobi and Luanda peace processes?

 Whatever the case, Tshisekedi trapped SADC.