M23 representatives are in South Africa on a non-governmental programme and say they have shown willingness to find a lasting solution to the conflict, accusing Kinshasa of sabotaging peace processes.
While the presence of Congolese rebel group M23 in South Africa this week may cause a diplomatic spat between Pretoria and Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo government’s snubbing of the African Peace and Security Dialogue, hosted by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, will further harm efforts to bring peace to the troubled country.
The dialogue, in its second year, was held this week in Magaliesberg in the North West, and ends on 6 September. It was attended by among others policymakers, scholars, peace and security experts as well as government representatives from across the continent, including International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
It comes in the same week that a peace deal brokered by Qatar and the United States in June faced collapse with some elements of the agreement not being implemented. On Wednesday, the Joint Oversight Committee comprised of the US, Qatar, Rwanda, the DRC, Togo — the African Union facilitator — and the African Union Commission met for the second time to review the deal in Washington DC, noting with grave concern the “slowness” in the implementation of the agreement. They also raised concern about the escalating violence in eastern DRC, in violation of a ceasefire agreement.
The DRC’s failure to attend the dialogue in South Africa adds to a cocktail of concerns that President Felix Tshisekedi prefers war over peace, and risks delaying the silencing of guns in the eastern parts of the country, currently under the control of the rebel Congo River Alliance, of which M23 is part.
M23 representatives are in South Africa on a non-governmental programme and say they have shown willingness to find a lasting solution to the conflict, accusing Kinshasa of sabotaging peace processes. But the DRC government justifies its snub of the dialogue by arguing that M23 is a terrorist organisation as declared by the United Nations and the AU, and accusing Mbeki of favouring Rwanda and the Kigali-backed rebel outfit.
But whatever concerns Kinshasa has, the country needs to choose a path of peace, and not war, and must participate in all efforts, particularly by Africans, to find a permanent solution to the crisis, which has displaced millions and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the east of the country.
The DRC must release the 700 prisoners as agreed in the Qatar and US brokered agreement. Many of them are said to have died in detention; tortured and tormented by government forces.
The war in DRC has gone on for far too long and a solution needs to be found as a matter of urgency.
Otherwise, Tshisekedi risks being remembered as a warmonger president, rather than a peacemaker and nation builder, something his late father, Etienne Tshisekedi, hailed as the Mandela of the Congo, was renowned for.