After months of pacing television sets accusing Rwanda of being responsible for the violence in eastern DRC with all the lies and extrapolations imaginable, the Congolese government spokesperson has made a major mistake .
A consequence of his risky mastery of English or media overwork? The fact remains that, cornered by his interlocutor, the minister half-heartedly admitted the complicity of the Congolese government with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an extremist militia resulting from the perpetrators of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis, in calling the genocidal group a “movement” rather than a rebel group.
For those who closely follow the geopolitical situation in eastern DRC, this admission should come as no surprise given the close ties that have always existed between the armed group and Congolese elites.
Serial contradictions
For several months, the Congolese government has been making contradictory statements about the FDLR.
In September 2022, before the General Assembly of the United Nations, President Tshisekedi declared that they no longer posed any threat, going so far as to stress that it was only a pretext used by Rwanda to justify his aggression.
A few days ago, during an interview on France 24, Congolese Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula denied the presence of FDLR members on Congolese soil, before retracting unconsciously, saying that the regional force in Africa de l’Est had been mandated to eradicate all negative groups, including the FDLR!
These contrasting positions, a thousand miles from the unanimous demonization of the M23, are symptomatic of the evolution of the perceptions of the Congolese elite vis-Ă -vis the terrorist movement, guilty of abuses against the local population, but today perceived with sympathy thanks to their collaboration with the Congolese army in their fight against the M23.
Real threat
The idea that the FDLR no longer represents a danger, repeated over and over again by Congolese political leaders, has been widely taken up in the international press. But this discourse does not hold water when we look at the facts.
A few years ago, the group was still described by the UN as “one of the most important foreign armed groups operating on the territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo”.
More recently, in 2021, North Kivu Governor Carly Nzanzu said FDLR fighters were responsible for the assassination of Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio in North Kivu province. In December 2022, a report by Human Rights Watch confirmed the collaboration between the Congolese armed forces and the FDLR.
In addition, the militia stands out from the more than 130 armed groups operating in eastern Congo in two respects: its military expertise and an extensive economic network.
The FDLR have reconstituted military schools in exile; they benefit from military training, and have a growing number of Congolese in their ranks.
Two reports, that of MONUSCO dating from 2014, and that of the Pole Institute dating from 2022 revealed that the FDLR controlled 95% of the charcoal trade in Goma, a traffic that generates more than 45 million dollars a year. Fortune that they have invested in real estate and hotels in Goma. In addition, the militia lives off taxes on local populations.
In other words, the FDLR are far from the handful of indomitable combatants refusing to hand over their weapons that the Congolese authorities have described.
Legacy of hatred and barbarism
Upon their arrival in eastern Congo in July 1994, Hutu extremists on the loose began to spread their ideology of hatred throughout the region, and many areas of North and South Kivu provinces became uninhabitable for Tutsis. Congolese.
Today, from their bases, the FDLR have transmitted their vision of the world to a new generation. Relying on local, endogenous ethnic tensions linked to territorial competition, they instilled in the Congolese the Hamitic idea, that is to say the idea of ??a regional conflict between Bantu peoples (of which they classify the Hutus ) and Nilotic (Tutsi).
To this day, they still dream of reconquering Rwanda, where they intend to reinstate an apartheid regime similar to that which existed before 1994.
Obstinacy in error
The FDLR are not an epiphenomenon or a consequence of the chaos in eastern Congo, but one of its root causes. Its harmful effects have been amplified by the support of the Congolese government.
Depending on their needs, successive Congolese regimes have sponsored the genocidal militia. In July 1994, President Mobutu welcomed them with open arms. In 1998, it was President Laurent Désiré Kabila who, after turning his back on his Rwandan and Ugandan allies, had recourse to them and mobilized more than 20,000 combatants whom he integrated into the national army.
It is therefore not surprising that Patrick Muyaya described the FDLR as a “movement”, and not an armed group, thus trivializing the criminal organization, or the fact that the Congolese army collaborates with them instead of fighting them.
By Jessica Mwiza
