Congo. The offensive against the negative forces has begun but there are gray areas.
Military operations began in eastern Congo after the proclamation of the State of Siege in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu. The first successes are registered against smaller armed groups of which some of them surrendered without a fight. The hard core of the negative forces represented by the Rwandan terrorists of the FDLR remains untouched for the moment. Dark sides of this military operation also emerge. The lack of assistance to internally displaced persons and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Congolese Tutsi minority Banyamulenge in the Mulenge plateau, South Kivu province.
The General Staff of the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) have announced the start of the offensive against the negative forces that for twenty years have occupied vast territories in the eastern provinces of Congo, rich in precious minerals. The offensive took place in the town of Nyakunde and the adjacent villages: Kalinde, Malubata and Malumbako, 47 km from the city of Bunia, North Kivu. The offensive focused on a Congolese armed group named in acronym: FPCA-PFI, one of the many Congolese Mai Mai groups of the criminal network created by the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) registered in the international list of terrorist groups and formed by the Rwandan genocidal forces behind the 1994 African Holocaust.
The FARDC spokesman informs that after an hour of intense fighting with extensive use of heavy artillery and portable versions of the famous Russian multiple rocket launcher: Katyusha, in use since World War II, the army managed to overwhelm the negative forces by inflicting heavy losses. Also known as “Stalin’s Organ”, the BM-13 multiple rocket launcher has a greater intensity of fire than conventional artillery but poor firing accuracy and takes a long time to reload the missiles. The Republican army freed the Nyakunde hospital which had been occupied by the rebels, kidnapping 30 sick people and medical personnel.
The news arrives of the unconditional surrender of the rebel leaders Bilikoliko of the UPDC militia, Jetaime of the AFRC militia, Matata Pungwe of the FDDH militia, Bwira Mapenzi of the NDC / R militia. These warlords together with their militiamen have deposited their weapons and reached the disarmament and socio-economic rehabilitation program funded by the European Union, USAID and the United Nations. The willingness to surrender was communicated to the governor of North Kivu and from tomorrow May 12 the planning of the disarmament and demobilization actions will begin. All rebel groups have received orders to allow the military occupation of their outposts and operational bases.
It should be noted that the General Staff of the Congolese army and its regional allies have decided to first disintegrate the nebulous network of armed groups allied to the Rwandan FDLR terrorists. Often these are small bands of 60 to 80 men (sometime from 100 to 200 men), trained and armed by the FDLR. Operations against these smaller armed groups will ensure obvious military successes but the real clashes will occur when the Republican army will move against FDLR.
According to diplomatic sources, the FDLR in eastern Congo would have 3 brigades in North Kivu and as many in South Kivu with an estimated number of about 18,000 men. To these can be added a few thousand Burundian Imbonerakure militiamen, the youth wing of the Burundian regime transformed since 2014 into a paramilitary organization under FDLR control. This terrorist group is well rooted in the territory and it enjoys a fair amount of popular support. During these 20 years of military occupation of the territory, the FDLR have created a popular protection system similar to that one of the Italian mafias. Part of the profits generated by the illegal trade in precious minerals are recycled in the east of the country in the construction, hotel industry and other commercial and productive activities. Other factors make it difficult to eliminate FDLRs quickly. Among them the vastness of the territory (for the most part covered with forests) and the proximity of the province of South Kivu with Burundi where the FDLR have the full support of the military junta in power.
According to a military analyst in the region, the Congolese Republican Army’s plan is to destroy the armed groups of the FLDR network and then focus on the Rwandan terrorists in North Kivu. No military action is currently expected in the adjacent South Kivu province, where the presence of the FDLR remains strong.
The national media have promoted an information and support campaign supporting President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo initiative and the Republican army to counterbalance the fake news campaign promoted on social networks and disseminated through WhatsApp. The newspaper “La Prosperité” invites all Congolese citizens to demonstrate active solidarity with the ongoing military operations.
The newspaper La Tempête des Tropiques insists on the need for an awareness campaign around the state of siege, in order to get the involvement of “all the sons and daughters of Congo in the face of the tragedy that is unfolding in the east of Country where populations are severely weakened and at the mercy of the forces of evil, who use them as human shields to achieve into Balkanize the country ”.
The newspaper L’Avvenir leaves the chorus of support for the government of Kinshasa, focusing on the dramatic humanitarian situation caused by the violence of these armed groups that have occurred since January and on the inadequate response of the government. “The humanitarian situation in the east of the country is very alarming. There are nearly 1,654,212 internally displaced persons in Ituri, while in North Kivu there are nearly 2,277,590 internally displaced persons. Despite this humanitarian crisis, no important response has been provided by the central government to internally displaced people in the two provinces hit by the state of siege, “read yesterday’s editorial.
This is the first dark side of the offensive. However, it must be considered that many of these IDPs are still trapped in areas controlled by various rebel groups or current theaters of armed clashes. The government has promised to increase support “for our brothers in difficulty” by asking for the active collaboration of UN agencies and Congolese and international NGOs.
The second dark side concerns the blamelessness of the Congolese army. In its latest monthly report, the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) recorded a “32% increase in human rights violations in March compared to February: 655 cases in total”. According to UNJHRO, at least half of the violations are attributable to the military.
“If the army wants to have more power, it must be blameless!” Warns the city movement Fight for Change (LUCHA). The observations made refer (but without naming them) to the fighting in progress on the Mulenge plateau, a province of South Kivu, involving the Tutsi-Congolese ethnic group Banyamulenge. Since last January there has been an escalation of clashes in the plateau and surrounding areas that have forced 4,000 Congolese citizens of the Banyamulenge ethnic group to take refuge in the village of Bijombo, near a UN peacekeepers base of MONUSCO.
Since the time of Operation East Corridor, Banyamulenge have been under the crosshairs of republican forces and Rwandan special units. This due to the alliance of an armed group Banyamulenge to FDLR terrorists and the union of armed opposition movements to the government of Kigali, called P5 which brings together the following armed groups: Rwanda National Congress — RNC, Forces Démocratiqaue Unifiées — FDU, PS-Imberakuri, the PDP-Imanzi and Amhoro People Congres.
Since 2020, the armed group Banyamulenge has been opposed by the Congolese regular army, alongside the Burundian armed opposition groups RED Tabara, FOREBU and local Congolese Mai Mai militias commanded by Colonel Njwapa.
As early as July 2020, civil society in South Kivu was denouncing various war crimes perpetrated by the Republican army, Rwandan soldiers and Mai Mai militiamen against the Banyamulenge civilian population. The allegations of violence against civilians were picked up by the American association in defense of human rights Human Rights Watch, accusing the Rwanda Patriotic Army (the Rwandan army) of carrying out mass killings of Banyamulenge civilians and other violations of human rights. The fury against civilians would be part of a strategy to break the resistance of the Congolese Tutsi ethnic group.
The violence against the Banyamulenge is bordering on ethnic cleansing. The displaced people would now be around 35,000 out of a total of the ethnic group estimated at 80,000 individuals. The government of Kinshasa should intervene to put an end to this situation which represents the darkest chapter of the mandate of President Felix Tshisekedi.
Yesterday, May 10, a delegation from the People’s Defense Forces of Uganda (UPDF) led by Major General Kayanja Muhanga, commander of the UPDF Mountain Brigade, spoke behind closed doors with members of the Congolese Republican Army staff to discuss a military strategy, aimed at eradicating the extremist Ugandan rebels of Islamic orientation ADF (Alleance of Democratic Forces) operating in North Kivu. At the moment, the details discussed are not known. The only information received concerns the creation of a joint coordination of military operations against ADF rebels and the imminent arrival of a Ugandan army division in North Kivu. Unlike the forces sent from Kenya, the Ugandan military contingent will be completely autonomous from the UN peacekeeping mission of the Blue Helmets: MONUSCO.
