The much talked about Qatari-mediated peace talks between Tshisekedi’s regime and the M23/AFC have hit a dead end.
Negotiations in Doha are completely blocked because Tshisekedi refuses to get serious about peace. Instead, he clings to a failed military approach that has plunged the DRC into deeper chaos.
For nearly a month, M23/AFC negotiators laid down clear preconditions for talks. These are a declaration by Tshisekedi expressing his political will to negotiate; a repeal of the National Assembly’s oppressive November 8, 2022 resolution; cancellation of death sentences, arrest warrants, and bounties targeting AFC/M23 leaders; immediate release of all civilians and soldiers unfairly arrested based on ethnicity or association; and an end to hate speech and discrimination.
These are reasonable demands, right? Well, apparently not for Tshisekedi, who would rather cling to delusions of military victory than stop the bleeding of his country.
With Tshisekedi sabotaging any prospects for peace and continuing to deploy what remains of the demoralised Congolese army alongside ethnically charged militias called Wazalendo, clashes persist across South Kivu. Rather than engage in meaningful dialogue, Tshisekedi has chosen escalation, ordering attacks on the M23/AFC.
In response, M23/AFC forces have skillfully bypassed FARDC positions, deliberately avoiding a bloodbath in Uvira—a city now reduced to chaos as FARDC and Wazalendo militias turn their weapons on each other. Tshisekedi’s thugs are killing each other while M23/AFC makes advances toward the Fizi plateau. By severing Uvira’s supply lines, they’ve effectively choked off arms and reinforcements to Tshisekedi’s forces from the rest of the DRC.
On a parallel front, M23/AFC troops, having secured Kaziba, have pushed through to Minembwe. Two advancing flanks are now closing in on Kalemie, the provincial capital of Tanganyika. Once Kalemie falls, the path into Katanga will be wide open—a region long hostile to Tshisekedi and home to heavyweight opposition figures like former President Joseph Kabila, now based in Goma, M23/AFC’s political capital.
With Kalemie set to fall, Tshisekedi’s regime is teetering. The war he reignited to distract from his political failures is boomeranging with deadly precision. His days in power are numbered. He will either flee into exile or be captured alive to finally answer for the ethnic cleansing campaign and ruin he has unleashed on the Congolese people.
ellenkampire