The inept ruler in the DRC Tshisekedi Tshilombo continues to inflict more misery and death on the god-forsaken peoples of DRC by refusing to negotiate with M23. Yet, this is the same Tshisekedi who, during his opposition days, did not hesitate to sit down at the negotiating table with M23 leaders in Kampala. Just to add a dash of irony, he even hosted them in a Kinshasa hotel for 14 months back in 2019. And yet today, he seems perfectly content to sacrifice the last remaining able-bodied Congolese souls, all in the name of avoiding negotiations that could bring an end to the ceaseless carnage of Congolese in the blink of an eye.
To begin with, it is essential to recall the series of broken promises by various Kinshasa regimes in dealings with the March 23 Movement. As far back as January 2008, following a string of wars that started in 2004 with General Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), from which the M23 evolved, the Kabila regime planned the Goma Conference. This conference involved not only the rebellion but also all armed groups from the East. It concluded with a declaration of hostilities cessation -with several commitments from Kinshasa, including amnesty, refugee repatriation, and the expulsion of the genocidal forces of FDLR now integrated into the Congolese army.
These commitments were never fulfilled. And then came Tshisekedi, who, in turn, engaged in negotiations with the M23. In a press release dated May 29, 2022, the M23 revealed the terms of agreements reached in Kinshasa with the Tshisekedi regime, which were supposed to be ratified during the Nairobi Consultations. Among these terms, there was a plan for the M23 to work alongside the government to secure and pacify the eastern region of the DRC. To facilitate this, a special force composed of four battalions, including two from the M23 and two from the FARDC, was intended to be formed. It was explicitly stated in the document that these special units would answer solely to the supreme commander of the armed forces, namely Tshisekedi.
However, Tshisekedi finds himself in despair, forcing the hands of French Parliamentarians to nominate Rwanda as guest of honor in a party they were never invited to in the first place. The Congolese government, caught between a rock and a hard place, wants to affix a domestic affair onto an external entity for demagogy and populist purposes.
For lack of accountability, the aggrieved have become constant targets of persecution and intimidation to prevent them from exercising their Congolese rights. The Kinshasa regime confound that M23 fighters are Congolese and that the ongoing conflict in the DRC is an internal Congolese matter. Consequently, denying their Congolese identity only serves to legitimize their cause.
Furthermore, the Congolese government is escalating tit-for-tat provocations, unleashing armed militia to the Rwandan borders to compel response as justification for their fallacies.
In essence, the Tshisekedi regime’s refusal to heed calls for negotiations with the M23 and end the ongoing carnage in the DRC, as urged by regional bodies, is nothing more than a cynical game aimed at manipulating the Congolese populace, who have been fed a steady diet of baseless ethnic animosity directed towards Rwanda and Congolese Tutsi over the years.
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