The blundering president of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa insists on keeping SADC troops entangled in the war-torn eastern DRC. But two questions remain unanswered.
First, what are SADC forces even doing in eastern DRC? Second, why are they dropping like flies, if this so-called “peacekeeping mission” is indeed peaceful? After all, didn’t they arrive with declarations of “keeping peace”? So why the body bags?
Facts on the ground are very different, and contradict these words. The people of Goma and its surroundings already know what SADC troops have brought in their wake: mass looting, rampant sexual violence, and other atrocities. These so-called “peacekeepers” have proven themselves to be an imported plague, rather than a stabilizing force. Instead of restoring order, SADC – especially South African troops – has transformed Congo’s crisis into a full-blown regional catastrophe.
But now the tide has turned against them. They are now ensnared in a death trap of their own making.
South African troops are suffering humiliating defeats, their overpaid European mercenary allies are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship, and the FARDC – already a broken, demoralized rabble – has collapsed like a house of cards.
The writing on the wall couldn’t be clearer: SADC’s (read that Ramaphosa’s) intervention to support Tshisekedi is an unmitigated disaster. And yet, Ramaphosa, in a fit of suicidal delusion, wants to reinforce his battered expeditionary force, why exactly?
Ramaphosa is blinded by his own greed. He was promised mineral concessions by Tshisekedi, if he sent troops to fight his (Tshisekedi’s) wars – meaning his genocidal campaign against Tutsi communities of eastern DRC.
In other words, Ramaphosa shoved his snout into DRC, to bolster a genocidal (but equally gluttonous) maniac, purely to gain mineral concessions.
But then the South African president’s shady mineral dealings (he even appointed his brother in law “envoy to the Great Lakes Region”!, to obviously manage these dealings) have ended up backfiring. Badly.
Fighters of the M23 movement have inflicted defeat after defeat against the Tshisekedi, Ramaphosa coalition, culminating into the capture of Goma over a week ago. The M23 gave them a bloody nose that they won’t recover from.
Hardly surprising, because M23 is an ideologically correct movement, fighting for a just cause: the survival of its people the DR Congo Tutsi communities, and for their rights as Congolese citizens.
On the other side are forces fighting for everything wrong: two of them (make it three, including Ndayishimiye of Burundi) driven by greed, but also by hate and genocide ideology.
These will suffer even worse defeats, if they don’t change their ways.
ellenkampire