The just leaked ‘Final Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’ makes for extremely uncomfortable reading for anyone who actually cares for regional stability and the end of the eastern DR Congo crisis. I say ‘uncomfortable’ because the report attempts to do two main things; firstly, to create falsely a narrative that there is indisputable evidence that Rwandan armed forces are involved in the M23 offensive, and secondly, to justify the coalition between the genocidal FDLR militia and the Congolese national army, FARDC. So, what is the evidence of “direct interventions by the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) on the Democratic Republic of the Congo territory to reinforce M23 combatants, as the so-called ‘experts’ write in the report? Unnamed sources, non-existent RDF officers, blurry images, DR Congo government propaganda, and known anti-Rwanda civil society groups. Listening to diverse sources isn't an issue to me; the cardinal sin that the so-called Group of Experts commits is refusing to admit RDF’s many clarifications into the final report (instead, RDF's clarification is found in the less well-read Annex). Roping the RDF into the M23 mess isn’t a new tactic for either the Group of Experts or any of the myriad of international organizations that earn their bread off the backs of the long-suffering Congolese people; what I find quite shocking is just how blatantly the authors of the Final Report attempt to normalize the DR Congo governments coalition with the genocidal militia, FDLR. Let us remember that this murderous group has a long history of targeting not only Rwandan territory but also Congolese Kinyarwanda speakers. While the report highlights the collusion between the FDLR and the DR Congo army (revealing, for example, that in January 2023, FARDC military brass gave FDLR commanders $5,000 and assured them “that they would be provided with adequate weaponry”), it does not go far enough in putting into context just how this cooperation is driving further conflict in the restive region. The genocide ideology that Interahamwe militia and ex-FAR introduced in eastern DR Congo following their defeat in 1994 is at the very heart of the conflict today. This ideology found fertile ground in Zaire [present-day DR Congo] of the ailing Mobutu Sese Seko [president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997] and grew in leaps and bounds in the years following. Today, hundreds of thousands of Banyamulenge in South Kivu, and the Tutsi in North Kivu, have been forced to flee their homes, with over 80,000 languishing in refugee camps in Rwanda. As Congolese were forced to leave their farms and fields, FDLR moved in. Two reports, by the UN Mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, in 2014 and the Pole Institute in 2022, revealed how the FDLR controls 95% of the charcoal trade in Goma, a trade that generates more than $45 million a year. The genocidal militia not only taxes local communities – as if they are the State – but they also use their illicit funds to invest in real estate and the hotel business in Goma. The question that needs to be answered is whether the financial and military support, as the Report highlights, the DRC government is giving the FDLR a clear and present danger to the Rwandan people. I would say ‘yes’. It was only in 2019 that FDLR attacked Kinigi, an attack that killed more than 10 Rwandan citizens. With the new arms and financial resources that FDLR is receiving, it is not a stretch to imagine those guns attempting to wreak havoc in Rwanda again. The region, through the Nairobi Process and Luanda Roadmap, is looking for ways outside this mess. However, the more the FDLR receives direct DR Congo funding and arms, the less likely the chances of success. It is now up to DR Congo's diplomatic partners to hold it accountable for the harm it perpetuates by allying itself with a genocidal militia. Hopefully, this report wakes everyone up. I am not holding my breath. The writer is a socio-economic commentator.
