Thousands of Congolese citizens on Wednesday, January 18, hit the streets once again, this time to show their displeasure towards the East African Regional Force, which is deployed in the eastern part of the country to facilitate peace efforts in the restive region. The demonstrations, which were organised by government-leaning civil society groups, were eventually scuttled by the police but the instigated animosity towards the regional force among the population has been brewing for weeks now. The main reason the demonstrations were staged was to rebuke the regional force for not launching an offensive against the M23 rebel group, irrespective of the fact that this is not part of their mandate. The core mandate of the force is to monitor the implementation of a region-led process aimed at bringing peace in the area which has been a bedrock of insecurity for close to three decades. The botched protests follow another violent demonstration held last year in which the Congolese blamed the UN peacekeeping mission for inaction against the same rebel group, which is just one of the over 130 rebel outfits operating in eastern DR Congo. At least 36 people, including peacekeepers, died in the demonstration held in July 2022. It is justified for citizens to show discontent over a prevailing security problem, especially where it's taken so long, but then they are targeting the wrong people. They should be blaming the Congolese armed forces and their government for failing to seek a peaceful resolution to the crisis and blatantly undermining regional mediation efforts, instead of directing their anger at foreigners who are only trying to help. This, however, speaks to the conduct of the Congolese leadership generally and is one of the reasons the country has remained a security mess for long. They will blame everyone but themselves. The governance failures will be blamed on neighbouring countries instead of their leadership, while any insecurity will be conveniently blamed on foreigners. Until Congolese srart to hold their own leaders to account for the problems they are faced with and demand for sustainable, homegrown solutions to their problems, the situation will never improve. Unfortunately, there is a spillover effect of the persistent violence to neighbouring countries, including Rwanda, which has already suffered attacks from DR Congo in which innocent people have lost their lives besides the influx of refugees that are fleeing violence and acts of genocide.
