With more than 260 local and foreign armed groups present and active in five provinces for more than two decades, the eastern region of the DRC is in a situation of growing insecurity leading to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation with more of 6 million internally displaced people.
Faced with this situation, Moà¯se Katumbi, presidential candidate in December 2023, reiterated his promise to restore the authority of the State, six (6) months after his election as head of the DRC.
During an interview given to Lubumbashi media, the president of the political party Ensemble pour la République who is repeatedly criticized by the Congolese government for not mentioning Rwanda by name as being the aggressor of the DRC through the terrorist movement of the M23, maintained that instead of condemning, he would restore order so that the war would end definitively.
“… President of the Republic I am not going to condemn anyone, but I am going to restore order, 6 months. There will be no war here, we will respect the military. I will not be a populist president, soon I will be a President who will find solutions for the Congolese, I will give honor to my country,” declared Moà¯se Katumbi.
During his media outing on December 16, 2022, Moà¯se Katumbi ardently criticized Félix Tshisekedi’s security policy. He had notably pointed out “the ineffectiveness of the state of siege”, a special security measure introduced by Félix Tshisekedi, in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu since May 2021. For him, the state of siege is a “misfortune” for the Congolese.
According to the president of Ensemble pour la Républicaine, the ineffectiveness of the state of siege results from poor planning of the materialization of this particular measure intended to combat armed groups.
“The state of siege was poorly planned, despite the fact that I was in sacred union, we were never consulted but this state of siege created more problems and I believe that if we were contacted, if everything was planned, the military governor could not stay in Goma, we were going to put him in the territories where there is war, that way he would be at the front, instead of staying in an air-conditioned office, but I hope soon the military will do everything to drive out the M23 in our country and that we will have good elections,” he declared.
Moà¯se Katumbi had advocated profound reforms of the security forces which also involve improving the living conditions of the military.
