Analyze. After the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994, the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – ie the administrative regions of South Kivu and North Kivu as well as Ituri – has not known lasting peace for thirty years. Fighting therefore resumed in November 2021, with the return of a rebellion many believed to be extinct: the March 23 Movement, or M23, which was officially formed in the 2010s to protect the Tutsi of Congo. Like ten years ago, Rwanda is accused of exploiting this rebellion. However, Kigali’s responsibility for the recent violence, which in just a few months has already thrown 450,000 people onto the streets and killed dozens more, cannot hide other reasons: the chronic weakness of the Congolese state and the ambitions of another neighboring country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda.
Also read: The M23 rebels’ facade retreat in eastern DRC
In some offensives, the M23 has actually driven the Congolese army from several of its bases under the passive gaze of blue helmets from the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Monusco), a contingent of about 15,000 men who have been in the DRC since 2002 for a rather inconclusive result. The rebels have taken control of a large area north of the city of Goma, bordered on the east by the Ugandan border. Uganda, where many “historic” M23 fighters fled after their military defeat in 2012.
Rwanda is clearly identified as the logistical and ideological sponsor of the M23 by Kinshasa and the group of UN experts in charge of this crisis. The United States and France have also urged their Rwandan partner to stop meddling. On January 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken telephoned again to express his concern to Angolan President Joao Lourenço, under whose auspices a plan for a ceasefire and housing of the M23 was drawn up in December 2022.
Congolese impotence
Since then, the implementation of this agreement has stalled. The Congolese are therefore calling on the international community to put more pressure on Rwanda. Vain. This Congolese impotence is an expression of an unfavorable balance of power. However, the former Zaire is 90 times larger than its neighbor, eight times more populous. It has considerable undeveloped mineral resources where Rwanda’s main wealth, agriculture, is saturated by the record density of its population (511 inhabitants per square kilometer).
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