The South African Development Community (SADC) in May approved the deployment of troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a regional response to help restore peace and security in the east of the country.

The decision followed an extra-ordinary summit of the SADC leaders that approved the deployment of the SADC Standby Force to eastern DRC.

Few hours after the summit, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, while in Gaborone, Botswana, declared that the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) will have to leave his country definitively.

In November 2022, the EAC force was deployed to occupy localities which M23 had withdrawn from in accordance with the Luanda peace process. But Tshisekedi wanted the force to attack the rebel group to satisfy his cruel wishes.

Tshisekedi criticized the EAC Regional Force, accusing it of cohabiting with the M23 rebels.

Tshisekedi has actively worked to eliminate any opposition within his country that has resisted his call to massacre the M23 rebels and their civilian community.

His focus is on establishing a strong offensive force, disregarding the political dialogue proposed by EAC leaders to resolve conflicts in eastern DRC.

By dismissing political dialogues, Tshisekedi has now pinned his hopes on SADC, citing the alleged success of the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) from the SADC region in the 2013 battle against the M23 rebel group.

However, it is clear that FIB's victory did not translate into an overall success.

A decade after the defeat of the M23, the issue has resurfaced, underscoring the fact that the fundamental cause of the problem was never adequately acknowledged, analyzed, or effectively addressed.

As a result, the rebels continue to grapple with an ongoing existential threat and they continue to fight to defend the rights of their persecuted community.

The Congolese government, on the other hand, continues to hoodwink the world into believing that the rebels are not Congolese nationals with legitimate rights to security and citizenship.

For the SADC force, the primary mission would be to attack the M23.

The danger is that this mission tends to concentrate on the supposed danger posed by M23 and disregards the armed groups exceeding 260, operating in eastern DRC.

Further, it tends to accommodate other armed groups that commit atrocities against civilians.

SADC under the banner of the Congolese national army, will end up working as FARDC where in countering M23 attacks, the army has co-opted foreign and local militias, providing them with guns and ammunition, which has proved to escalate the violence.

The SADC mission in the DRC will end up being trapped in the Congolese army’s approach.

This would be dangerous for the stability of the region. Some of these local and foreign militias vowed to wipe out ethnic communities whom they claim are not real Congolese.

Eastern DRC hosts over 260 armed groups. Focusing solely on the M23 allows other groups to exploit the situation in their illicit activities and provides additional time for the rise of new ones.

Evidently, this approach is unlikely to bring about stability.

SADC should choose peace over war and not initiate war against the M23 as per Tshisekedi's desire.

The SADC deployment risks repeating past mistakes if it prioritizes military action over political dialogue, as advocated by Tshisekedi.

The warmongering approach will lead to similar pitfalls as has happened before.