EngRegional
UN support to SAMIDRC will aggravate DRC crisis
SAMIDRC was deployed in December 2023.
Since
December 2023, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been
deploying troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo to assist the Congolese
government to restore peace and security in the east of the country, by solely
fighting the M23 rebels.
SAMIDRC
is working with the Congolese army's coalition which has troops from the
Burundian army, MONUSCO, European Mercenaries, Wazalendo militia, and the
genocidal militia, FDLR.
Despite
all this, and the investment from the Congolese government, SAMIDRC is looking
for extra help from the UN.
On
July 8, the possible support to SAMIDRC was discussed by the UN.
Before
providing the support, the UN should put into consideration the fact that since
their deployment to eastern DRC, the Southern African mission has only
aggravated the security crisis in the country, and failed to bring peace in the
region.
Thousands
of innocent civilians have been displaced and hundreds others killed by heavy
artillery shelling by SADC forces since they started engaging M23 rebels, in
different parts of North Kivu.
The
M23 rebel group is fighting to protect the lives of Kinyarwanda-speaking
Congolese who have been persecuted, killed and denied their rights by
successive Congolese governments.
Hundreds have been arrested, tortured and killed. The Congolese Tutsi
have been harassed and told that they are foreigners who do not belong to DRC.
The
SADC leaders were aware of the root causes of the crisis, but still deployed
their forces to go and fight the rebels, who are the only protectors of the
Congolese Tutsi.
By
supporting SAMIDRC, the UN is only encouraging a military solution, to a
problem that can only be addressed through political dialogue, and reinforcing
Kinshasa’s stance in ignoring their domestic problems.
In
early July, two British humanitarian aid workers who were travelling in a
convoy that had arrived in Butembo from Lubero were attacked and killed by
Wazalendo, a militia fighting alongside SAMIDRC.
The
Southern African forces are also fighting alongside, FDLR, a terrorist group
formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
in Rwanda. The militia has been blacklisted by the UN, and classified as a
terror group.
For
the past three decades, the FDLR has spread genocide ideology, and with the
help of the Congolese authorities, they have engaged in hate speech and incited
citizens to hunt and kill people from Congolese Tutsi communities.
SADC’s
military intervention in DRC ignores the M23 rebels’ plight yet they face
threats of ethnic cleansing.
The
UN’s help to SAMIDRC will be actively sponsoring war crimes and ethnic
cleansing in DRC. Since their deployment, SAMIDRC has proved that they are not
a neutral force in the current crisis in eastern DRC, and will only fight the
M23 rebels, while completely disregarding the more than 200 armed groups
actively committing crimes in the region.
The UN
should be aware that the Southern African mission completely violates regional
peace initiatives; the EAC-led Nairobi Process and the Angola-led Luanda
Process. This only aggravates the crisis in eastern DRC.
