The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been experiencing insecurity, especially in its eastern part, for more than three decades. Presently, there are more than 130 armed groups operating in the country’s restive east. Many of these groups receive support from the Congolese government and security forces.

 

These local and foreign armed groups include FDLR – a Rwandan genocidal terror group formed by remnants of the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi – and ADF, the Ugandan Islamic terror group which is part of Islamic State's Central Africa Province. Atrocities committed by armed groups in eastern DRC have become part of a systematic pattern to disrupt lives, instill fear and create havoc, according to the UN.

 

In November 1999, the UN introduced its peacekeeping mission in the country,  then called MONUC, renamed MONUSCO in 2010, but the latter has brought no positive change. UN troops have consistently failed the Congolese population. Hundreds of protesters recently demonstrated in eastern DRC against one of the world's largest and most expensive peace operations. MONUSCO has around 12,400 troops and costs more than $1 billion per year. The protests laid bare public frustration with the U.N. peacekeepers, who have been deployed in the country for more than two decades.

 

But what makes the country a safe haven for terror groups? Corruption, weak governance and impunity are among the reasons why armed groups found a comfort zone in the country’s restive east. The prevalence of many armed groups subjected Congolese civilians to widespread rape and sexual violence, massive human rights violations, and extreme poverty.

 

Corruption

 

The Congolese state has suffered from corruption since independence. Endemic corruption in the country is common knowledge. The government’s lack of political will to investigate alleged wrongdoings and the opacity of financial operations have long enabled corrupt officials to enjoy impunity.

 

In end 2021, for example, high-level corruption was reported by a consortium of media and international groups after investigators from 18 countries, working with 19 media outlets and five nongovernmental organizations, spent months going through 3.5 million leaked documents to produce “Congo Hold-Up,” a stunning account of corruption under former president Joseph Kabila. According to findings, Kabila, his family, and close associates allegedly embezzled at least $138 million over five years between 2013 and 2018. They even allegedly stole United Nations payments intended for Congolese soldiers who contributed to peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic.

 

While the country’s people remain among the poorest in the world, successive Congolese regimes have put  their own short-term interests over the well-being of the Congolese people. Government officials deny that there’s a humanitarian crisis in a sinister attempt to attract foreign investment and further enrich those in power. The mining sector is particularly prone to corruption.

 

Valuable concessions are granted with little legitimate benefit to the state due to the lack of accountability and transparency in the management of natural resources.

 

Corruption in the country happens within all state institutions, including the security institutions, and involves destabilising effects. During his state visit to Ituri – one of two eastern provinces put under a state of siege since May 2021 with the aim of putting an end to the proliferation of armed groups – in June 2021, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi deplored the high levels of corruption within the national army. 

 

He admitted that the plague is a major obstacle to the existing security provision and pacification efforts.

 

 “In fact, there are many shenanigans that undermine our security forces. The same mafia has developed in the army as well as in our institutions. It’s not just the army and the police. We saw it, look, in the Senate recently. It’s all this law of omerta,” the Congolese president said, referring to the Senate’s refusal to lift the senatorial immunity of a former prime minister of Joseph Kabila, Senator Matata Ponyo, suspected of embezzling millions of euros.

 

Congolese army commanders sell arms to armed groups they are supposed to fight, and report ghost numbers of military personnel to increase their monthly earnings.

 

A Human Rights Watch report published on October 18 pins the Democratic Republic of Congo army (FADRC), on supplying arms and ammunitions to the FDLR. The FARDC used FDLR and other militia groups to fight M23 rebels, who seized the border town of Bunagana since June.

 

On many occasions, Congolese security forces were reported setting barriers for civilians, to cross after paying a bribe. They complain that their salaries are too little and irregular, making it difficult for them to survive.

 

Governance deficit

 

Poor or bad leadership is another major,  or the main, problem. The country is a battleground. And much of the recent violence is linked to the country’s worsening political crisis. State institutions such as parliament, courts, the army and the civil service remain weak and corrupt. Weak or missing necessary checks on executive power worsen the situation. Parliament is poorly funded and divided while the judiciary is deeply politicized and also inadequately funded.

 

The plague of bad governance continues to affect the country. Countrywide, violent crime such as armed robbery is common and local police lack resources to respond effectively to serious crime. Demonstrations are common in many cities. Some have turned violent.

 

Due to corruption, nearly 80 per cent of customs revenues are embezzled, a quarter of the national budget is not properly accounted for, and millions of dollars are misappropriated in the army and state-run companies.

 

 Worse still, the national elections scheduled for December 2023 created a class of disenfranchised politicians and former warlords tempted to take advantage of state weakness and launch new insurgencies. President Tshisekedi is now maneuvering to delay elections and is using violence, repression, and corruption to entrench his hold on power. Not sure he can win the December 2023 election, Tshisekedi is maneuvering to sow instability in a deliberate strategy of chaos to justify further election delays.

 

There’s a saying in the DRC that refers to “Article 15,” a nonexistent paragraph of the country’s constitution during the Mobutu Sese Seko regime in the 1970s that stands for “figure it out yourself.” It acknowledges the wide spread of corruption, implying that people cannot rely on the state to survive. Poor or weak governance and corruption are considered the biggest obstacles to protecting the country’s wealth and ensuring sustainable development.

 

Tshisekedi’s weak governance has emboldened armed groups. This is a president with little or no knowledge of the country’s daily situation to the extent that he appointed, on October 17, Maj Gen Floribert Kisembo, a man who died 11 years ago, as the new head of military operations in North Equateur Province.

 

Speaking to TV5 in November, Congolese opposition politician, Martin Fayulu, said: “Mr Tshisekedi is incapable, incompetent and irresponsible. He came to look for money with his friends.”

 

With irresponsible leadership, armed groups survive largely because the army is too weak to defeat them. For very long, the Congolese state has been an absentee landlord, with outside partners such as the UN mission, MONUSCO, pretending to do its work.

 

In a country where public administration is in shambles and civil servants mutated into predators, people expect very little from the state, government or civil servants. The country’s governance deficit makes it impossible to ensure the development needs and interests of the country and its people.

 

While corruption and incompetence within the DRC military and the government, among others, allow the insecurity in the east to continue, Kinshasa is in denial. For Congolese leaders, neighboring Rwanda is ever the culprit.

 

Impunity

 

Like his predecessor, Tshisekedi has presided over a system of entrenched impunity in which those most responsible for abuses are routinely rewarded with positions, wealth, and power. Congolese security forces have orchestrated much of the violence in the east, in some cases by creating or backing local armed groups.

 

Widespread impunity continues to reign, contributing to the recurrence of killings and other serious crimes. Documented crimes remain unpunished. For nearly three decades, for example, Kinshasa has not shown any sound proof that it won't tolerate the FDLR reign of terror and the group’s leaders won't enjoy impunity for their crimes.

 

The origins of the current violence in the DRC are in the massive refugee crisis and spillover from the 1994 genocide against  the Tutsi in Rwanda. The génocidaires fled to eastern DRC – where they were welcomed with open arms – and formed armed groups, intent on wiping out the Tutsi population there.  The ongoing violence and massacres in eastern DRC were escalated by hate speech spread by Congolese officials who were supposed to halt them.

 

Kinshasa has kept quiet and no single individual was tried for inciting hate speech, killing the CongoleseTutsi, or looting and damaging their properties.

 

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, on November 30, called for combatting impunity. She expressed concern over “an escalation of hate speech and incitement to discrimination, hostility, and violence nationwide –and specifically against the Kinyarwanda speaking Banyamulenge people – spread by political party figures, community leaders, civil society actors, and members of the Congolese diaspora.”