Tshisekedi headed in wrong direction

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, was elected on January 25, 2019, under a coalition of political parties, the Sacred Union of the Nation. Tshisekedi was announced winner with 38.57 percent of the vote, while his closest challenger, Martin Fayulu, garnered 34.8 percent, according to the electoral Commission.

Fayulu dismissed the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) as “a true electoral coup.” He declared that “the results have nothing to do with the truth of the ballot box,” in an interview with Radio France Internationale, calling on observers to publish the real results. There was suspicion that Tshisekedi had struck a power-sharing deal with former president Joseph Kabila, whom he described as “an important political partner.”

Later, the then Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga, who was Kabila’s ally was dismissed, causing Kabila to withdraw his political party, the Common Front for Congo (FCC), from Tshisekedi’s governing coalition. It sparked clashes in the capital Kinshasa.

Fast forward, Tshisekedi is now strategizing for a second term re-election in December 2023, amid fears of internal contradictions and challenges that have led him to commit catastrophic mistakes likely to make him a one term president.

The Coalition that propelled him to power seems to be crumbling and his popularity is steadily waning. Although Tshisekedi is the commander in chief of the armed forces, he has one biggest fear within the army. He is not in control of some Generals of the Mobutu era and those allied to Kabila. Some of the untouchable Generals are implicated in corruption deals with armed groups in eastern DRC that the government is meant to fight.

In order to boost his popularity, Tshisekedi has taken a suicidal option. He is playing the anti-Rwanda sentiment of the Congolese population. It is a devilish tactic played by his predecessors. Tshisekedi who started well, as a progressive president, has allowed his government officials, security organs, and Congolese masses to openly attack Congolese Tutsi and Rwandophones, through hate speech and using machetes to kill them. Incitement to commit genocide is openly done by police and military officers. Very disturbing pictures of Congolese Tutsi women being beaten and stripped naked by mobs, a shameful dehumanizing act, have gone uncondemned. According to African culture, mothers are to be respected and not treated in such an embarrassing way. African cultural beliefs consider such acts as bad omen. Probably the Tshisekedi government may be nearing a bad end.

Even the clergy who are supposed to preach God’s love for all humanity without discrimination, joined the anti –Tutsi rhetoric. Bishop Kabundi Walesa of the Walesa Centre de Reveil Spirituel or Walesa Ministries, was seen before hundreds of his congregation, in full military attire, preaching anti-Tutsi messages.

 Tshisekedi’s political party – the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), deployed its youth militia, the Brigade Special De L’UDPS Force Du Progres, to hunt and kill all the Tutsi in DRC. This looks like a well-played out replica movie, of how the genocidal government in Rwanda, in 1994, used the then ruling party – MRND – youth militia known as Interahamwe to commit the genocide against the Tutsi. More disturbing is the silence of the international media in the same way it did when the genocide against the Tutsi was happening in Rwanda.

Tshisekedi has resorted to employing the FDLR, a terror group that committed the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994, to help his weak government army (FARDC), fight against the M23 rebels in eastern DRC. The action by Congolese authorities is a breach of international law. Ironically, the UN forces – MONUSCO which is on the ground knows about this evil alliance, and has decided to be part of the problem.

Tshisekedi refused to recognise the M23 rebellion as an internal governance failure, to which he must find a solution. Instead, he blames it on neighbouring Rwanda. The M23 are Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese. They took up arms to fight for their rights to live in DRC as legitimate citizens who must coexist with others without discrimination and being endlessly persecuted.  Expelling high ranking Congolese Tutsi officers from the army has created more tension within FARDC.  

In December 2013, the DRC government and M23 rebels  signed a peace agreement in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The DRC Government and M23 signed declarations reflecting the consensus reached during the Kampala Dialogue on steps necessary to end the armed activities of the M23, towards long-term stability, reconciliation and development in the country, reads a joint ICGLR-SADC final communiqué. It is ironical to see that Tshisekedi opted to close M23 out of the Nairobi peace talks, calling the rebels a terrorist organization, yet, the government signed a deal with them that was never implemented.  

Killing the Tutsi and using Rwanda as a scapegoat for insecurity in eastern DRC will not help Tshisekedi.

The problem of eastern DRC which harbors more than 130 rebel groups is a reflection of governance failure to address the root causes of insecurity. The antidote includes recognizing Congolese Tutsi as legitimate citizens with full rights to settle peacefully in their country. Tshisekedi should play his political cards without dripping his hands in the blood of innocent people who did not choose to be who they are.