Beyond the conflicts in Congo and Rwanda

Rwanda’s Foreign Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, accused DR Congo of undermining regional efforts to realise peace, stability and development for the region.  The exchanges reflect the animosity that characterises their relationship. The rift between both countries has several roots. There is an official commitment to preventing a repeat of the 1994 genocide which killed an estimated […]

Rwanda’s Foreign Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, accused DR Congo of undermining regional efforts to realise peace, stability and development for the region.  The exchanges reflect the animosity that characterises their relationship. The rift between both countries has several roots. There is an official commitment to preventing a repeat of the 1994 genocide which killed an estimated million civilians. The second factor is the commitment by Hutu leaders to ensure that there is also open admission of and justice for members of their community killed in that conflict. Third is Rwanda’s bordering the eastern sector of DR Congo, which rich in valuable natural resources, notably tin, tantalum, tungsten, coffee and timber.
Both Rwanda and DR Congo have exploited the Hutu community who fled after the genocide. The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is, by definition, committed to ending Paul Kagame’s reign; Rwanda frequently sends troops into Congolese territory in support of Tutsi militias. United Nations experts and researchers have accused Rwanda of adding to the problem by sponsoring conflict in DR Congo, which has used Hutu refugees as leverage for attracting humanitarian aid and drawing world attention to conflicts that have been described as the ‘’deadliest globally since World War II’’.
Before Kagame’s interventions, the Banyamulenge had been in conflicts over land ownership and local political leadership with other ethnic groups in eastern DRC. They have been accused of being complicit with Rwandan officials to smuggle illegal minerals, label them as Rwandan products before exporting them to the international market. A UN Commission, however, also named 85 international companies as also being complicit in supplying weapons to militias looting resources across eastern Congo. These rival commercial interests accounted for the United Nations Security Council for a long time not mustering enough will to provide resources to defeat militias, including the M23 movement.
A new paradigm in relations between Rwanda and DR Congo, as well as among members of the UN Security Council, to halt the slide to all-out war, is therefore overdue. The African Union must urge a focus on cooperative economic development between the Great Lakes Region countries. The discovery of oil on a border region between Uganda and DR Congo; natural gas deposits in Rwanda and Tanzania; oil in South Sudan suggests that natural resources can be a viable anchor for a common industrial post-conflict growth and creation of wealth for their respective citizens.
Because of sustained conflicts in the region, the mines yielding minerals are shallow, and nowhere near the sophisticated, capital, and knowledge-intensive mining undertaken in many countries in Africa, especially South Africa. AU’s security-building initiatives should mobilise capital from member countries to invest in this mineral-based industrial development, and of other natural resources. The construction of roads, railways, bridges and airports in this vast region must be given priority.
The AU should also persuade the International Criminal Court to consider the indictment of officials of the 85 multinational corporations that a UN Commission accused of supplying weapons to various militias in exchange for illegal mining of minerals and various natural resources. The practice of indicting only officials of governments and or members of the opposition in the region and taking them to The Hague runs the risk of being considered a Western plot, unless it is expanded to include everyone engaged in activities that help to prolong the conflicts.