How did eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo become an arena for one of its bloodiest conflicts?

Armed conflict is tearing apart the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Reuters)

The eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) has been experiencing a state of ongoing conflict for decades as a result of its transformation into a war zone in which large groups of armed factions are involved. This conflict is described as one of the bloodiest conflicts since World War II, and some estimates say that the number of its victims reached approximately 6 million people.

The regions of North and South Kivu and Ituri in the east of the country are the focus of a conflict in which cross-border political, economic and ethnic motives are mixed, as the three border provinces, rich in natural resources, have turned into an arena of intense geopolitical competition between the neighbors of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which directly contributed to the complexity of the latter’s crises.

Colonial policies and the institutionalization of discrimination

The dispute over the extent of the Congoleseness of some ethnic groups is the main driver of the conflict in the region, and the actions taken by the ruling authorities, whether during the Belgian occupation (1885-1960) or after, contributed to the escalation of this identity dilemma.

As part of its engineering of local power structures, Brussels strengthened the role of the Tutsi tribes as mediating forces between them and the population in eastern Democratic Congo, where it installed the Tutsis (whether they were indigenous to the region (Banya Rwanda) or those brought from Rwanda (Mania Rwanda) as rulers of the region, Pushing the indigenous population (the Banya Mulenge, most of whom are Hutus) to make way for the growing power and influence of the Tutsi minority.

In this context, Brussels sought to replicate its experience in Rwanda and Burundi, neighboring Congo, which laid the foundation for the famous Rwandan massacres in the 1990s.

This role was discussed by Professor Mahmoud Mamdani - one of the most important scholars of African studies - in his exploration of the backgrounds of these massacres, explaining that colonialism worked to transform discrimination between the population into an “institutional structure, and Tutsi racism was the product of a joint project between the colonial state and the Catholic Church.”

The repercussions of these policies appeared later with the sunset of colonialism, and the question emerged as to who has the right to shape the new political reality of the region, as the customary leadership of the Congolese tribes of the region denied the Tutsis as a whole, demanding that they return to Rwanda, which the Tutsis rejected. This conflict constituted the first source of the ongoing crisis in eastern Democratic Congo.

Forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo army in the east of the country, where they are fighting against armed groups (French)

The national state and the question of identity

Government decisions in the post-independence state contributed to deepening the identity conflict in the east of the country, as Congolese President Mobutu Sese Seko (1965-1997) preferred to support ethnic minorities to help him rule the country without threatening his authority. In 1972, he issued a decree granting Congolese citizenship to all residents. Of Rwandan or Burundian origin who have settled in the Congo since before 1950.

This decision was met with overwhelming discontent as a result of the increasing numbers of “Albania-Rwanda” and their expansion of their access to lands in the north and south of the “Kivu” region.

According to a study published by Professor Hamdi Abdel Rahman on the conflict in the Great Lakes region, popular discontent prompted Mobutu to change his policy by issuing a law in 1981, which linked nationality to belonging to one of the ethnic groups that existed within the borders of the Congo in 1885.

This measure deprived a large sector of “Albania-Rwanda” of the right to citizenship, and of their lands, which were controlled by local Congolese groups claiming that it was their ancestral lands. Thus, the issue of land became the core of the conflict between “Albania-Rwanda” and other Congolese in North and South Kivu.

These decrees, which aimed to create balances that would ensure the continuity of Sese Seko’s ability to control both society and power, deepened the crisis and sparked conflicts related to identity and land in which the country is still suffering, despite his departure from power more than 25 years ago.

Corruption of political elites

Over the decades, the Congolese political authorities have established a pattern of “institutionalized” and organized corruption, by creating informal networks of interests that penetrate state institutions and invest the country’s vast wealth to maximize the gains of corrupt political leaders.

While the state’s interest required working to benefit from the resources of eastern Congo by working to formulate political settlements that would end the violence and give the government control over mining operations and their profits, the behavior of the political elites towards the conflict was a mixture of “indifference, impotence, and opportunism,” according to the description of Congo expert Jason Stearns, which Making the continuation of the conflict sometimes necessary to sustain the gains of those elites.

Corruption of the military establishment

The corruption of political forces was reflected in the military institution, as the Congolese army turned into a group of loyalty networks that were not limited to ethnic origins in their structure, but rather went beyond them to factors related to joint service in wars or material interests based on chains of corruption and nepotism, and appointments and promotions were linked to them. With unprofessional standards, which led to a reduction in the combat capabilities of the state’s armed forces.

The results of corruption within the armed forces, as documented by Stearns in his book The Unnamed War: The Endless Conflict in the Congo, led to the legitimization of the embezzlement of military budgets and equipment, which led to “undermining operational effectiveness.” The forces often found themselves on the front lines. "Without adequate food, ammunition, medical supplies or communications equipment."

In his study published in 2021, Peter Schouten, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, monitors the emergence of links of mutual interests between some Congolese army leaders and armed rebel groups, as the continuation of the conflict turns into a tool for generating benefits for both parties.

In this context, Schouten shows how the Ndoma Defense of the Congo (NDCRénové) movement maintained lucrative trade relations with local army commanders, trading gold from mining sites it controlled for ammunition, which gave it the opportunity “to build a large-scale economy around the horizontal integration of mining.” Gold and the system of taxation through tickets (jetons) across an ever-expanding area.

Rebel fiefdoms

The eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to a variety of natural resources, including gold, diamonds, oil and other precious minerals.

According to a paper published by the African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Conflicts, this wealth provided sufficient resources that enabled the rebel movements in the region to build what can be described as political fiefdoms that helped them establish economies that support the continuity of their activities, which prompted Rwandan President Paul Kagame to describe the war in eastern Congo It is "self-financing".

The sources of this economy are many, from controlling huge mineral resources to imposing taxes and royalties in the areas under the control of these movements. The connections of some of these movements to the interests of political and economic elites in neighboring countries or within the Congolese state have provided their leaders with protection and the ability to continue at times.

Eastern Congo and geopolitical conflict

Eastern Democratic Congo has turned into a point of intense geopolitical competition between a number of its neighbors, in which security, ethnic, and economic motives are mixed and the desire to prove regional hegemony, while contributing to the exacerbation of the chronic weakness that the Congo suffers from as a result of ongoing wars and tensions.

In this context, the geographical location of eastern Congo bordering Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda, and the ethnic overlap with the communities of neighboring countries, made the region a refuge for waves of refugees resulting from the ongoing political and ethnic unrest, forming clusters that in turn provided a human reservoir for many local armed militias or those fleeing from neighboring countries, taking advantage of From Kinshasa's weak security control over the region in some cases, or from its embrace by the authorities themselves within the framework of traditional proxy wars in the Great Lakes region.

The prestigious International Crisis Group monitors in a series of reports the escalation of geopolitical competition between Uganda and Rwanda to prove regional superiority, which has turned eastern Congo into an arena for proxy wars between the two parties, in which both Rwanda and Uganda sponsor armed militias opposed to the other, taking advantage of the security vacuum in the region. .

Economically, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda benefit from the absence of Congolese authorities in the east of the country to benefit from the natural resources of the region directly, or through their agents from the armed militias.

A paper issued by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies states that eastern Congolese rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda control strategic supply chains extending from mines in North and South Kivu to the two countries, using proceeds from gold, diamond and coltan smuggling to buy weapons, recruit miners and artisans, and bribe Congolese customs and border officials. .

As a result of these complications, successive peace agreements were not able to withstand and take the country to the post-conflict stage. In fact, these settlements often paved the way for new divisions that quickly found their way to support from competing capitals, fueling the flames of conflict in a region that had not known peace since. Contracts.

Source: Al Jazeera