Weekly Blog - 3 April 2023 - DR Congo
Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo
This week the aid agency Médecins Sans Frontièrs called for more aid to be urgently sent to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over a million people have been forced to flee their homes in North Kivu province since October 2022 as a result of fighting with the M23 rebel group. The refugees are suffering in terrible conditions with outbreaks of measles and cholera. The M23 group is mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis. The government of the DRC accuses the Tutsi-led government of neighbouring Rwanda of backing the movement (which it has supported in the past, but has since distanced itself from). Rwanda denies this. Other neighbouring countries like Angola, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan have sent troops to assist the DRC government in its struggle against the M23.[1]
How did we get here?
This is the latest chapter in a long and complicated history of tragic and bloody violence in eastern DRC. Congo’s modern era began when it achieved independence in 1960 after almost a hundred years of particularly brutal colonial occupation by Belgium. The newly independent nation immediately faced a series of secessionist uprisings in the east and south of the country, and a series of short-lived governments. In 1965 the head of the army Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in a military coup, and later renamed the country Zaire. Mobutu ruled until 1997. His strong anti-Communist stance ensured support from the US, despite the brutal authoritarian nature of his government and its human rights abuses.
In the mid 1990s, after the Tutsi-led government came to power in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994, Rwandan Hutu refugees crossed into eastern Zaire, and there formed armed groups which fought against Rwanda from across the border and against ethnic Tutsis within eastern Zaire, both with the support of the army of Zaire. In response, Rwandan and Ugandan armies invaded eastern Congo in 1996, and allied with an internal Zairean opposition group, the Alliance of Democratic Forces led by Laurent Kabila. In 1997 they forced Mobutu to flee, and installed Kabila as the new president. The country was renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. But Rwandan and Ugandan troops did not leave the country, and instead both began forming their own new rebel groups in the east. In 1998 they ended up fighting Kabila’s regime that they had only put in power the previous year. Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia then also intervened sending troops to back the DRC government. In 2001 Laurent Kabila was assassinated and replaced by his son Joseph Kabila. The same year UN peacekeepers were deployed in the country. Eventually after several years of brutal conflict a power sharing peace deal was agreed in 2003 and all foreign armies, except Rwanda, left the country. In 2006 DRC returned to democracy and Joseph Kabila was confirmed as president after elections. The country has remained democratic since then, but has often teetered on the brink, with repeated episodes of election violence, controversy and failed coup attempts.
In the years since the early 2000s there have also been repeated military uprisings by multiple rebel groups in the east of the country. These conflicts have been extremely bloody, and entrenched, and featured the appalling and widespread use of sexual violence. The region is a long way from the capital Kinshasa in the far west, is a contested source for resources such as oil, gold, diamonds, cobalt, copper, and other rare metals, and has powerful neighbours such as Rwanda, which has continued to support ethnic Tutsi rebel groups in the area. One of the most brutal of these has been the March 23 (M23) movement established in 2012. In October 2022 M23 launched its latest offensive. It has captured a number of key towns in the eastern North Kivu province of DRC, and engaged in bloody fighting around Goma, the provincial capital.
What can be done?
As Christians, we know that God hates war. He loves every person in eastern DRC, is heartbroken by every tragedy, and wants to see lasting peace in the region. As we read in Isaiah, we long for the day when “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (Isa: 2: 4). What then might be the practical steps that can be taken to help end this long running tragedy? Drawing from the teaching of the Bible, and all the lessons from civil conflicts around the world in the decades since the Second World War, one of the key areas that a major report from Arise, The Arise Manifesto, looks at in detail is what works to reduce and end entrenched civil conflicts within nations (Arise Manifesto, pg 89 – 90, 129 – 136). It also considers what pressure can be applied from outside of the nation by the international community to help with that process (Arise Manifesto, pg 119 – 124).
Support the government against minor factions
The report finds that in a minor conflict against an illegitimate extremist faction with no real popular support, then the least violent route with the least suffering may indeed be to support the legitimate national authority to quickly overcome and regain complete control (Arise Manifesto, pg 129). Arguably, this may be the least worst option with M23 in the DRC. After all, the Bible does teach that in fulfilling their duty to administer justice, national authorities are permitted to use limited force where necessary to protect innocent citizens and enforce the law. We see this in the Old Testament, in the law and the teaching on the role of kings and national authorities, but also in the New Testament, where John the Baptist, Jesus and Peter all seem to accept, and not criticise, the role of soldiers and national authorities to enforce justice. Paul tells us, “rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from the fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment to the wrongdoer” (Roms 13: 3 – 4). The state is the only institution in the Bible that is permitted to use force in any way (certainly the church and us as individual Christians should never use it), and even here that force should be significantly limited (Arise Manifesto, pg 81 – 82).
Negotiate a peace deal with all factions in more complex conflicts
On the other hand, the Arise Manifesto also finds that for nations embroiled in more serious protracted internal conflicts with no simple fast solutions, then a better approach might be for pressure to be applied to bring all sides to the negotiating table to agree a lasting, peaceful and harmonious political settlement. This would certainly seem to apply to the wider picture in eastern DRC, with its decades long series of conflicts involving multiple armed factions. And indeed there are ongoing peace talks involving DRC and other governments in eastern Africa. The lessons from the Bible and from history would indicate that there are a number of key factors to get right in such negotiations. The aim should be to reach a single ‘inclusive enough’ power sharing authority willing and capable of enforcing its will across the region. It should give the leaders of the major factions some kind of role in the new authority, thus strengthening their incentive for peace. It should structure the political settlement in the region in such a way that it requires those seeking office to have to reach out across ethnic lines to be successful, rather than just appeal to their own community. It should not rush to elections in the region too soon in a still divided and volatile environment, until the new authority has had time to build more stability.
Furthermore, such negotiations should grant the legitimate demands of minority groups for fair treatment and respect for their traditions, providing they harm no others. This isolates hardline extremists (those few who will never be reconciled) from popular support, which means legal and legitimate intelligence and police methods can then be used to arrest and prosecute them. A crucial part of any agreement must also be to rapidly demobilise, disarm, reintegrate and find jobs for the young fighters from various factions, and agree the resettlement of refugees and internally displaced people. Another key issue must be agreeing a rebuilding plan for the conflict-affected parts of the region, which should be generously resourced by the international community, with funds that are released once peace is agreed, providing further incentives. These top-down peace negotiations should be matched with a bottom-up process of local reconciliation at the village and community level. They should also involve a process of truth telling and reconciliation, similar to other such processes that have been successful in countries like South Africa and Rwanda. This means telling the truth about the violence that has been committed; confessing that it was wrong; asking for forgiveness; turning away and rejecting the use of violence in the future; and receiving forgiveness and amnesty from prosecution for those crimes (Arise Manifesto, pg 89 – 90).
Following talks it will be essential for the new regional authority in eastern DRC to produce some rapid confidence building results, otherwise the region could all too easily slide back into conflict again. All the lessons from similar processes around the world would indicate this is crucial, especially in two areas which people living in such conflict regions desire above all else. The first is to protect them from the daily terror of lawlessness and brutal armed factions by demonstrating that the new regional authority is providing security, justice and the rule of law. The second is to create jobs and economic development, through focusing on policies to ensure the growth of a strong and fair economy. This is critical in an area like eastern DRC, one of the poorest in the world, where young men with few prospects and a history of violence can all too easily turn back to war. To prevent this, means following the kinds of policies outlined in another major report by Arise, 4 Shifts, which looks at what is needed to create, strong, fair and green economies in even the poorest countries in the world (4 Shifts, pg 56 – 60, 70 – 86). Rapid results in these two areas will ensure all sides have much to lose and little to gain by returning to conflict.
Of course the final details of any eventual peace deal, political settlement and normalisation of relations in eastern DRC, will be for the negotiators in the region to decide. The road from here to there is not going to be easy, and no doubt will be fraught with violence and setbacks along the way. Such an approach as that outlined above is of course a lot easier to write and read about, than it is to implement in a hard, complex, poor and violent reality. Nevertheless, such an approach, drawn from all the lessons from the Bible and from dozens of similar conflicts around the world in the decades since the end of the Second World War (Arise Manifesto, pg 89 – 90, 129 – 136), does offer a tried and tested blueprint for moving out of the current situation of protracted conflict and into a more permanent peace in eastern DRC. There is also much that individual Christians, the church and the international community can do to support and apply pressure to all sides to help with this crucial process (Arise Manifesto, pg 119 – 124).
Find out more
Find out more about steps to prevent, reduce and end conflicts in the Arise Manifesto. This report is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
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[1] More aid urgently needed in eastern DR Congo – MSF, BBC, (4 Apr 2023), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/africa