Speaking in front of an audience of over 200 young people, on December 3, 2022, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi made an alarming declaration. "Le régime Rwandais, avec Paul Kagame à sa tête, est l'ennemi de la RDC" (the Rwandan regime, headed by Paul Kagame, is the enemy of the DRC). He then called on the Congolese populace not to consider all Rwandans as enemies; saying that they (Rwandans) needed DRC's solidarity to rid themselves of their backward leaders.
Tshisekedi's speech on 'solidarity' has had one major beneficiary and it's not the Congolese people who trade with their Rwandan neighbors on a daily basis, mainly through the Goma-Rubavu border post. And it's certainly not the Rwandans who want to enjoy the enduring sounds of Congolese rhumba in the 10,000-seater BK Arena. The only grouping of Rwandans, who are benefitting from Tshisekedi's solidarity, are those who kill Rwandans (and Congolese mind you) to fulfill their aim of a violent overthrow of the Rwandan government, led by President Kagame. I am talking about FDLR and other exiled terrorist groups.
Think I'm lying?
This is what the US Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs, Robert Wood, said in March 2023 while addressing the UN Security Council. The United States "has for long been concerned by the FARDC's (the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) collaboration with armed groups in the east, especially the FDLR... We reiterate our call on the DRC government to fully professionalize its security forces and to immediately end cooperation with armed groups".
The US diplomat was reacting to the UN Group of Experts Report that was released in mid-December 2022. On page 13 of the report, it is revealed that during a meeting held in the small village of Pinga, in May 2022, two FDLR commanders, nicknamed Silencieux and Potifaro, met in secret with FARDC's Colonel Salomon Tokolonga. In the meeting, the genocidal group proposed to mobilize approximately 600 combatants to support FARDC. In return, the groups would receive weapons and ammunition from FARDC.
As a result of that meeting, as per the testimony of former and current combatants, civil society sources, local authorities, and researchers, the FDLR (and other local armed groups) received weapons and ammunition from FARDC on several occasions. By supplying these arms to the FDLR, what Tshisekedi was doing was fulfilling his promise to help depose the Rwandan government.
Today, a photograph being shared on social media apparently shows Tshisekedi meeting Eugene Gasana, the disgraced former diplomat. Which is his right, I guess. What raised my suspicions, vis-à-vis the motive of the meeting, was a communiqué released on May 20 by yet another newly founded Rwandan exile movement; this one called 'Platform for Rwandans Common Good'. Signed by discredited academic, Charles Kambanda, the communique demanded the opening of Rwanda's political space. Although the name of the grouping is new, its membership is largely made up of the RNC/P5 cabal that, if we recall, attempted, vainly to establish an armed group on the DRC-Rwanda border. One of their commanders, a Maj (Rt) Habib Mudathiru, was sentenced to 25 years by the Military High Court in 2021, following his capture in 2019 on the battlefield in DRC, for terrorism-related charges.
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So, it would not be a stretch of the imagination to come to the conclusion that Tshisekedi and Gasana are up to no good.
And, as all previous evidence has shown, this partnership will inevitably end in tears. Rwandans will continue to sleep peacefully in their beds while Congolese continue to live in terror as Rwandan rebels continue to wreak havoc in eastern DRC.
What truly is unfortunate is just how much effort the entire region is expending on trying to find a solution to the eastern DRC morass. Soldiers are on the ground, far away from their families, and regional diplomats and presidents are shuttling from one East African capital to another, all in an effort to create a stable Congo. And while everyone is expending all that money and time, what is Tshisekedi doing? He's indulging in tomfoolery. The saying is, you can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink. I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that Tshisekedi is the horse that will simply not drink from the fountain of peace. However, I will not close myself off to a good surprise. You just never know.
The writer is a socio-economic commentator.
