A US lawmaker claims that M23 is undisputed whether Rwanda is present or not

According to US Congressman Ronny Jackson, the AFC/M23 uprising in eastern DR Congo is still unopposed regardless of Rwanda’s support.

Jackson, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee on Intelligence and Special Operations, stated last week that Kinshasa is in a poor position to handle the security issue in the country’s east when speaking to a US congressional committee after his trip to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He claimed that M23 is essentially unopposed in the region, whether Rwanda is present or not, and that occasionally Congolese soldiers are surrendering their arms and joining the rebels. “This puts the Congolese government in a difficult situation.”

“The Congolese government needs to do a few things,” he stated. First, they must deal with the domestic problem. The majority of M23 members are among the many individuals who are not treated as Congolese citizens; everyone in the nation must be accorded the rights and privileges of Congolese citizenship.

Similar to how a portion of Uganda was formerly part of Rwanda, the congressman claimed that this has been a long-standing problem, partly because eastern DR Congo was once a part of Rwanda before colonialists imposed border lines. He clarified that unlike the Congolese government, the Ugandan government was able to accept the people living there as Ugandan citizens and integrate them right away.

“M23 are not going to just put down their weapons and walk away…there has to be an effort to incorporate them into the Congolese military and make them feel like Congolese citizens,” Jackson stated, acknowledging that the Congolese government may find it challenging to acknowledge them. They are defending their nation.

Large tracts of land were liberated in January as the rebels swiftly spread throughout the provinces of North and South Kivu. On January 27, the rebels took control of Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, and reinstated order after intense combat sparked by persistent violations of an earlier ceasefire by the Congolese army coalition. The rebels once more reacted when the security situation in South Kivu worsened due to allegations of violence, looting, and atrocities spread by the Congolese army coalition. On February 15, they took control of the important airport of Kavumu before pushing south to seize the regional capital, Bukavu.

They took control of Walikale, a town located roughly 130 kilometers northwest of Goma, on March 19. The rebels had advanced so quickly this year that it was the furthest west they had gone.

The FDLR, a terrorist group supported by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and established in the middle of the 2000s by the surviving leaders of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi, has long held sway over Walikale and is a threat to the Congolese Tutsi community.

With a plot to strike Rwanda, the genocidal militia teamed up with Kinshasa’s friends and became fully integrated into the Congolese army coalition. Burundian troops, European mercenaries, troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and Wazalendo indigenous militias are also part of the Congolese army coalition.

The greatest danger to Rwanda and the entire area is the genocidal mindset of the militia.

In 2021, the most recent conflict between the M23 rebels and the Congolese army coalition began.

The Congolese government’s repeated failures, such as Kinshasa’s inability to carry out a peace deal made on March 23, 2009, led to the formation of the rebel organization on May 6, 2012. The Congrès national pour la défense du people (CNDP), a former political-military organization that had been established roughly three years prior, put an end to the uprising in January 2009 after Kinshasa pledged to incorporate its members into the national army, among other things.

Leading government figures, including former defense minister Charles Mwando Simba, who died in Belgium in December 2016, attended a ceremony welcoming the first group of rebel fighters into the national army at the Rumangabo military camp, located roughly 45 kilometers north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province. After their fighters were incorporated into the national army, CNDP executives a few days later declared “the de facto transformation of CNDP into a political party,” which was acknowledged by the government.

However, everything came returned to normal roughly 11 months after being declared a political party and condemning rebellion. Désiré Kamanzi, the disgruntled leader of the former rebel group that had evolved into a political party, quit at that time.

“We asked that a regular national monitoring committee be held, but this was in vain,” Kamanzi said, adding that “the fundamental reasons are, notably, the slowness in implementation of the agreements we have signed with the government since January.”

M23 is currently a member of the Alliance fleuve Congo (AFC), a broader and expanding rebel group that was established in December 2023.

The security situation in eastern DR Congo was made worse by a large Congolese army coalition that was supported by Western nations like Belgium and included Burundian soldiers and Rwandan genocidal militia.

Alliance fleuve Congo is fighting for governance that upholds fundamental human rights, protects all Congolese residents, and tackles the underlying causes of conflict under the leadership of Corneille Nangaa, a former chairman of the country’s national election commission. Among other evils that are pervasive in DR Congo, the insurgency has pledged to eradicate corruption, nepotism, tribalism, and the FDLR’s philosophy of genocide.

Sixteen years have gone by since the CNDP and Kinshasa signed a peace deal on March 23, 2009, “without the root causes of the conflict being truly addressed,” rebel spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said on Sunday.

“Successful governments have often favoured superficial solutions, treating the symptoms without tackling the roots of the problem, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of violence in our country,” he emphasized, adding that the M23 was established on May 6, 2012, as a result of the failure to implement this agreement.

“Unfortunately, these underlying causes still exist today, and the resolutions, sanctions, and condemnations made against our organization only serve to exacerbate tensions and jeopardize peace efforts,” Kanyuka continued.

According to him, the rebel movement is dedicated to safeguarding and defending every Congolese citizen.

“We urge national and international human rights organizations to focus especially on the ongoing propagation of hate speech and violent incitement by some members of Mr. Félix Tshisekedi Tshilombo’s Union Sacrée and his cabinet.”

“We can only hope to put an end to the cycles of war that afflict our country by addressing the underlying causes of conflict.”

“Security of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo”

Everyone interested in the resources in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo should prioritize the safety and stability of the nation, according to the US congressman.

Jackson stated: “Everyone in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo must have a stake in the region’s safety and security as well as the potential for foreign businesses to enter and make investments there. And by “everyone,” I mean Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and everyone else present.

He claimed that Kinshasa has turned into just another organization attempting to exploit the resources in the region and that the Congolese government lacks the means and capacity to influence events there.

DR Congo corruption

During his visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the US congressman was astounded by the extent of corruption, exorbitant taxes and fines, and a manipulated foreign exchange rate.

“I spoke with a Swiss company this morning, and they informed me that their business was valued at about $18 billion, and they received an absurd $80 billion tax bill for their business last year. After protesting, they were able to have it lowered to $1 billion, which is still hundreds of times more than their annual revenues.

He went on to say that the nation’s prejudiced legal system can never ensure that anyone will receive a fair verdict if they disagree with one another.

He claims that this situation of poor administration also supports the proof that government officials and their families are becoming rich while the populace is going hungry.