Demonstrations have turned violent, with protesters ransacking several foreign embassies in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In videos posted to YouTube and X, protesters can be seen burning tires in the streets and vandalizing the French embassy.
The unrest is believed to be a direct response to the government’s failure to halt the advance of the M23 rebel group in the country’s east, as well as alleged interference from foreign powers. M23 is one of nearly 100 armed groups currently vying for control of the mineral-rich Eastern Congo and has been funded by the Rwandan government in the past, according to the United Nations Security Council.
Protests erupted earlier this week following the fall of Goma, the largest city in North Kivu Province, and the death of Major General Peter Cirimwami, the provincial military-governor. In a news conference on Friday of last week, army spokesman General Sylvain Ekengey announced that the military-governor was “killed by a Rwandan army sniper” in what he claimed was the 25th attempt on his life.
In a recent phone call with President Félix Tshisekedi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the assault on Goma by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and affirmed its respect for the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The U.S. has urged its citizens to leave the DRC, and the U.N. has begun evacuating nonessential personnel from its offices due to the escalating violence.
Though fighting has intensified more recently, the origin of the conflict can be traced as far back as the Rwandan genocide. In its aftermath, Hutu militias responsible for the atrocities began crossing the border into the neighboring Congo, then known as Zaire, fleeing the advancing Tutsi government forces. Rwanda pursued the rebels and invaded the Congo in 1996 in what would become the First Congo War. The conflict widened to involve nine other African countries, leading many to refer to it as Africa’s World War or Africa’s Great War.
A peace agreement was signed in 1997, but fighting resumed less than a year later after a Tutsi revolt in the city of Goma and the invasion of their Rwandan military backers. Zimbabwe and Uganda joined Rwanda in the Second Congo War, and all three were later accused by the United Nations of conducting illegal mining operations in the Congo and plundering the country of its mineral wealth.
The war ended in 2002 and a transitional government was established, but violence never completely stopped. Rebel groups have continued to cause problems for the new government, whose solution was to bring them under control by integrating them into the country’s national armed forces. This would prove to be short-lived, and one group, now known as M23, staged a mutiny in 2012.
Bowing to international pressure, the Rwandan government ceased its funding of M23 and they were largely defeated a year later. The group has garnered little attention over the past decade until a recent attack on the Congolese army and U.N. peacekeeping forces, as well as renewed attempts to reclaim territory, have brought them roaring back into the spotlight.
While the Rwandan government has denied continuing to support them, a recent report by the U.N. Security Council revealed that M23 has been funding itself through mineral exports smuggled out of the Congo via its border with Rwanda. The largest export is coltan, a mineral critical to the production of smartphones and other electronics.
Historians and regional experts have long warned that the conflict in Eastern Congo is more than just a domestic crisis. Professor Matthew Bender, a historian of East Africa at The College of New Jersey, emphasized that the current conflict has already been a war for more than a decade.
“Right now, the fighting is pitting the Congolese Government Military and the United Nations Peacekeeping Force against M23 and the Rwandan Military,” he noted. “M23 is widely believed to be supported by Rwanda, and there are estimates of as many as 1,000 Rwandan troops in the Eastern DRC.”
Following the deaths of four South African soldiers in the rebel offensive on Goma, South Africa’s International Relations Minister, Ronald Lamola, called for Rwanda to immediately withdraw its forces from the DRC. The fatalities, including the deaths of ten soldiers last week, occurred as part of the South African peacekeeping mission, and have intensified the diplomatic strain between Rwanda and other U.N. members. Lamola said in a statement, “We would also like to condemn Rwanda for its support of the M23 as clearly proven by various United Nations reports of experts. We therefore call upon Rwanda to cease its support to the M23 and for its forces to withdraw from the DRC.”
As the situation deteriorates further, reports of violence against civilians have increased dramatically. A report by the humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders claimed to have treated “25,166 victims of sexual violence” between January and December of 2023. The report also notes that roughly 70% of victims came from displacement sites around the city of Goma.
Despite the gravity of the crisis, Professor Bender believes a wider war is unlikely. “I don’t know that there’s much possibility for other regional powers to get involved at this point. The two Congo Wars cost millions of lives, and there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for a broader conflict,” he noted. “It is still a developing situation, though, so time will tell.”
