DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and Kenya’s former president Uhuru Kenyatta, the East African Community (EAC) facilitator in DR Congo’s peace process, have agreed that foreign armed groups must lay down weapons or be removed, the bloc says.
Kenyatta arrived in Kinshasa last week on a mission to help find a lasting solution to the ongoing conflict between government forces FARDC and the M23 rebels.
According to an EAC statement, released after Tshisekedi and Kenyatta’s meeting of November 13-14, the two leaders urged all foreign armed groups to disarm or be “forcefully ejected.”
Tshisekedi and Kenyatta “reaffirmed the commitment to ensuring that foreign armed groups that do not voluntarily surrender and return to their countries of origin are forcefully removed from the territory of the DRC,” the statement reads in part.
For over two decades, eastern DR Congo has been the sanctuary of over 120 local and foreign armed groups, who are responsible for atrocities and terrorist activities, according to the United Nations.
Some of the most notable foreign armed groups include the FDLR from Rwanda, RED-Tabara from Burundi, and ADF from Uganda.
The FDLR was formed by remnants of Interahamwe militia, FAR, and other groups linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and it has been accused of carrying out cross-border attacks and shelling Rwandan territory.
Over the years, the militia has broken into splinter groups including CNRD, FLN, RUD-Urunana, and FPPH-Abajyarugamba.
However, it remains unclear what impact Tshisekedi and Kenyatta’s call will have since DR Congo’s army has been accused of operating alongside the FDLR from time to time.
A recent UN of Experts report indicated that the FDLR were also controlling large swathes of DR Congo’s Virunga National Park – part of a regional mountain range shared between Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo – and that it was recently involved in mass recruitment.
Two senior FDLR political leaders were in 2015 found guilty and sentenced by a German court over their role in the group’s abuses in the Congo. One of them, Ignatius Murwanashyaka, has since died while the other, Straton Musoni, was recently deported to Rwanda after completing his time in jail.
Previous calls to expel negative foreign groups operating in the Congo have gone unheeded, which has helped soil relations between the vast country and several of its neighbours to the east, including Rwanda.
Speaking to The New Times recently, Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, a researcher and political scientist, said the insecurity in eastern DR Congo can only be brought to an end if the country works with Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda to decisively end the threat of militia groups operating in eastern DR Congo.
“There’s only one way out of the current crisis and that consists of DRC recognising what the problem is and sitting down with countries like Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, and then coming up with a strategy among the four countries for tackling this problem,” Golooba-Mutebi said.
“As long as the FDLR, ADF and RED Tabara are in Congo, there is going to be no peace or stability.”
