By Abayomi Azikiwe
For several weeks fighting has flared once again in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel grouping has moved into the North Kivu city of Goma, the third largest urban area in the country of 102.3 million people.
Additional reports indicated that the aim of the M23 was to move into the South Kivu city of Bukavu prior to the declaration of a ceasefire on February 3.
Despite the announcement by the rebels of a ceasefire, the DRC government under President Felix Tshisekedi dismissed the proclamation by M23 noting that clashes were continuing in North and South Kivu. In Goma there are reports of at least 900 bodies which have been recovered by local authorities and the International Red Cross as a result of the fighting.
The periodic displacement and fighting in eastern DRC have been ongoing since 1994 when the genocidal war erupted in Rwanda. Hundreds of thousands of people from the Tutsi ethnic group were slaughtered by their neighboring Hutu fellow citizens in a bitter battle over the control of the landlocked state.
Many of the Hutu fled to eastern DRC after the seizure of power by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in mid-1994. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) was formed and based in eastern DRC in efforts to retake control of Rwanda from the RPF government led by President Paul Kagame.
Much criticism has been levelled against Kagame accusing the government in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, of violating the sovereignty of the DRC. Leading up to the latest round of fighting, efforts aimed at securing a permanent peace in the eastern region of the DRC have been conducted by Angolan President Joao Lourenco.
An article published by the Washington Post on January 5 says of the current situation in eastern DRC:
“Rwandan-backed rebels gained ground in eastern Congo on Wednesday despite the unilateral ceasefire they declared earlier this week, taking control of a city 60 miles (96 kilometers) from the provincial capital of Bukavu, civil society officials and residents told The Associated Press….Néné Bintou, president of the civil society of South Kivu province, told the AP that the mining city of Nyabibwe was under the control of the M23. The city is midway between Bukavu and Goma, the city the rebels seized last week and still control.”
The DRC has been a treasure trove of strategic resources which are indispensable to the world capitalist system. These resources include cobalt, lithium, diamonds, gold, tin, tantalum, copper, among others.
During the period of Belgian colonialism between 1876 and 1960, the people of Congo were subjected to horrendous labor exploitation, torture and executions. It has been estimated that in the early phase of Belgian rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as many as 10 million Africans died due to the horrendous labor conditions, the spread of infectious diseases, torture and outright murder of civilians who refused to participate in the colonial system. Those Africans that resisted the system of forced labor in the collection of rubber had their hands, arms, breast, heads and other bodily parts severed by the Belgian colonialists and their agents.
Even prior to the founding of the so-called “Free Congo State” by Belgian Monarch King Leopold II, this region of Africa had suffered from three centuries of capture and trafficking by European enslavers. These historical events over a period of more than five centuries have resulted in the disruption of Congolese culture and social life. Today in the 21st century, the people of this region of the continent remain victims of the multinational mining firms, international financial institutions and the foreign policy imperatives of the imperialist states.
Anti-imperialist Demonstrations Take Place in Kinshasa
Since 1998, when the Rwandan and Ugandan governments invaded the DRC with the intention of seizing control of Kinshasa the capital, the problems of displacement and deaths have accelerated. A regional war involving the Southern African Development Community (SADC) against the Rwandan and Ugandan military forces and its Congolese allies lasted until 2003.
Former President Laurent Kabila had been a longtime follower of the first Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) who was overthrown and executed by the imperialists and their domestic surrogates in the DRC. Kabila was assassinated in 2001, and the government was taken over by his son, Joseph, who ruled for another 18 years.
The DRC would join SADC, the 16-member regional organization which still has peacekeeping troops in the country. United Nations troops were also deployed to the DRC in the aftermath of the war between 1998-2003. These UN troops remain in the DRC although their presence has been quite controversial among some elements of Congolese society.
The central economic role of multinational mining firms and their historical interference in the internal affairs of the country, has resulted in the belief that the United States, France and other imperialist states are behind the M23 rebels and the Rwandan government’s hostility towards the DRC. It was the U.S. during the administration of President Bill Clinton which supported and provided political cover for the intervention by Rwanda and Uganda at the turn of the century.
Therefore, it was not surprising to witness the demonstrations in Kinshasa which targeted the embassies of the imperialist states. Although Rwandan President Kagame attempted to minimize the political significance of the anti-imperialist attacks on western outposts saying that these actions were encouraged by the government in Kinshasa, there is more than an incontrovertible basis for hostility among the Congolese against imperialism and its allies.
On January 28, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported:
“In Kinshasa, the city woke up in turmoil as civil society mobilized the local population to protest against the dire situation in Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, and the inaction of the international community. Protesters were seen on the city’s main arteries, disrupting traffic, blocking commercial activities, burning tires, and chanting slogans in front of the embassies of the United States and other Western countries, as well as the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission. Part of the exterior of the French embassy was set on fire by protesters, while the nearby Ugandan embassy was looted. Sounds of detonation were heard in the neighborhoods where the Rwandan embassy and the U.S. consular service are located, according to a Xinhua reporter.”
Anger towards the U.S. reached such a level that the State Department has downsized its embassy staff and encouraged holders of American passports to leave the DRC. These anti-western demonstrations have been erupting in the DRC since the early months of 2024.
There were solidarity actions in Paris when people took to the streets on February 1 demanding an end to the violence in the eastern DRC and for the implementation of international pressure against the Rwandan government. The demonstration was organized by several expatriate Congolese groupings who are very much concerned about developments in the DRC and throughout the Central and East Africa region.
A report on the solidarity events in Paris noted:
“Protesters called for a stronger response from world powers to take more decisive action. One of the event organizers from ‘Urgence Pona Mboka,’ also addressed the crowd, stressing the importance of solidarity and perseverance: ‘I’m here as one of the organizers of this protest. A protest to show that Congolese people are standing up. We must not be discouraged we must not be intimidated. The international community, with France at the forefront, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States of America—this is what we call the international community, and they are still against us. And today, we’ve said—no, we’ve said no, and we are showing it.’”
Events in DRC are Taking Place Within a Broader Political Context
Throughout several geopolitical regions of Africa people are challenging imperialism in various forms. The demand for the withdrawal of French and U.S. troops from several states including Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast, Chad, Senegal and possibly others, is a reflection of the failure of neo-colonialism in this phase.
The assumption of power by the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump has only resulted in greater international tensions. Trump has threatened to colonize Greenland, Canada, Panama and the Gaza Strip within Palestine.
His pronouncements and arbitrary imposition of sanctions against leading economic powers globally has prompted profound hostility towards the U.S. government. Domestically, the people of the U.S. are facing certain economic decline along with heightened state repression.
These developments provide renewed opportunities for international solidarity among working and oppressed people. The world’s majority provide the only solution to the burgeoning global crisis throughout their united actions aimed at defeated imperialism.
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