The protracted security crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has proven to be too much for the country to handle. For over 30 years, the eastern part of the country has been a battlefield, and Kinshasa has exacerbated the situation rather than finding a solution.

Though it presents itself as the victim, the Congolese government holds the key to long-term solutions to the armed conflicts in the east and elsewhere in the country.  Eastern DRC could be a hub of peace and prosperity if the Congolese government took a few right steps. Let's look at each one of them.

Dismantling FDLR and other armed groups

The FDLR is a UN-sanctioned terrorist group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The genocidal militia fled to DRC, then Zaire, after their genocidal regime was defeated.

They found a safe haven in eastern DRC where Kinshasa kept arming and supporting them in their grand plan to attack Rwanda, overthrow the current democratically elected government and continue their unfinished job; to massacre the Tutsi.

The FDLR poses a security threat not only to Rwanda but also the region at large.

The Congolese government has repeatedly signed FDLR disarmament and neutralization agreements. However, none of those agreements were implemented. Instead, Kinshasa continued to support this genocidal militia and even went as far as incorporating FDLR into the Congolese national army. Some FDLR combatants are in the country’s republican guards.

In eastern DRC, the FDLR freely spread hate speech and genocide ideology against the Congolese Tutsi.

Protecting Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese

Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese especially the Congolese Tutsi have been the target of persecution and death orchestrated by a myriad of armed groups operating in eastern DRC with the support of successive Congolese governments.

Hate speech and divisionism have been a tool used to persecute Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese. The Congolese government has failed to address the issue, instead supporting it, claiming that Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese are Rwandans who have to return to Rwanda.

Consequently, millions of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese fled their country to seek refuge in neighbouring countries and elsewhere across the world.

Congolese Rwandophones found themselves in eastern DRC, where the then Rwandan territories of Rutshuru, Bunyabungo, Masisi, Gishali, Tongo and Idjwi, among others, were given to DRC as result of the Belgian administration’s resettlement programme of Rwandese in the Congo – movement de l' installation de la population – implemented from 1931.

Since then, Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese have been persecuted and denied their rights by other Congolese communities with the knowledge of Congolese governments, claiming that they were “foreigners who want to balkanize eastern DRC,” ignoring the fact that they received those people during the partition of the borders by the colonialists.

The government accepted the land but never wanted to respect the people received under that partition. This partition of borders has been a key factor as regards the hostilities in eastern DRC.

Knowing that if Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese don’t fight they would all be exterminated, the M23 rebel group took up arms to defend themselves against an existential threat.

The rebels’ demands to their own government have been simple. All they need is to be integrated in the national army, protect the lives of Congolese Tutsi and be recognized as legitimate Congolese citizens.

Repatriating Congolese refugees

By February 2023, the UN Refugee Agency reported more than one million Congolese refugees and asylum-seekers in countries bordering DRC, with nearly half of them sheltered in Uganda (479,400). Others are scattered in Burundi (87,500), and Tanzania (80,000) and elsewhere.

Rwanda has more than 100,000, Zambia 60,000; the Republic of Congo 30,000 and Angola 25,000.

In 2022 alone, Rwanda and Uganda received more than 100,000 refugees from eastern DRC. The number is increasing day by day as the hostilities keep growing.

The Congolese government has refused to deal with the refugee crisis. If Kinshasa really needs to bring peace in its eastern part, it should pave the way for these countless Congolese refugees to be repatriated to their homeland.

Regulating mining activities

The mineral rich country has been experiencing problems in managing its vast export sector. Mismanagement of mining companies triggered the creation of myriad of illegal and ghost mining companies which is responsible for illegal exploitation of minerals and armed robberies.

The illegal mining activities led to the creation of numerous armed groups to protect the interests of Congolese political actors and officials involved in the administration of the mining trade.

According to the UN group of experts on DRC, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi is among those who formed militia groups in the east of the country to protect their mining sites, claiming that they were there to combat fraud within the sector.

Through illegal mining, several armed groups are able to buy arms and ammunitions beyond what they get from Kinshasa. Sadly, innocent Congolese civilians are the victims of barbarity of those government sponsored armed groups.

If successive DRC governments had managed and established effective mining practices, the industry would have been the country's largest source of wealth, but it has instead become a source of insecurity and disorder.

The DRC’s enemy and cause of their insecurity is not their neighbors. The enemy is within the country. It is bad and ineffective leadership.