Skip to content

Cart

Your cart is empty

Article: Intel Update: DRC

Intel Update: DRC

Intel Update: DRC

PHOTO CAPTION: Members of Kenya Defense Forces, part of the troop deployment to the East Africa Community Regional Force, near Goma, North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2022. (Reuters)

 

BY GABRIEL FANELLI

 

The national soccer team of The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) stood with a hand over their mouths and two fingers in the shape of a gun to their heads during the semifinals of the African Cup of Nations protesting the violence in their country and the wholesale ignorance of the international community to their plight. The DRC is no stranger to violence. Born out of the vicious Belgian colonial system which killed an estimated 10 million people by 1920, half the population at the time, even independence couldn’t quell the unrest and the country was fraught with coups, rebellions, uprisings, and civil wars lasting the next several decades. Many of the horrific things done to the Congolese by the Belgians were adopted by whoever took power and done to their own countrymen.


As with any country in Africa, ethnic tensions often drive violence. Today, an estimated 120 groups vying for regional control have left seven million people displaced internally. On June 7, 2024, an Islamic State (IS) affiliated group known locally as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) slaughtered 60 Christians with guns and machetes in North Kivu province, one of three mineral rich eastern provinces locked in a cycle of perpetual violence. The recent spate of attacks is a part of a conflict between another rebel group known simply M23 after their origins in the March 23, 2009 agreement signed by the DRC to end tensions with the Tutsis. M23 is made up of ethnic Tutsi rebels who broke away from the Congolese Army after claiming the agreement between them and the DRC was not upheld.

 


The ADF was founded in 1995 in Uganda as an equally Salafi jihadist movement as well as an ethic one which sought to bring down the government of then Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni. The 1990s saw an uptick in Ugandan military operations against the ADF after significant attacks in Kampala. The Rwenzori border region between Uganda and the DRC has been under siege for decades, and various DRC governments even supported the ADF simply to deny any claims to the region by Uganda and Rwanda and push back on their regional influence. The ADF used this eastern portion of the DRC to regroup, recruit, and mobilize. They pledged allegiance to IS in 2018 after an internal split, and although still under the monicker of ADF, they formally belong to the nebulous ISIS-Central Africa Province (IS-CAP). In 2021 the U.S. State Department designated them a foreign terrorist organization under the name ISIS-DRC.


The ADF has developed significant financial networks which have yet to be disrupted in any way that would halt them from recouping any losses. They utilize the gold and timber rich region in eastern DRC to stay cash rich. At the same time, they operate several black markets and systems of additional revenue which are almost impossible to hinder. Their presence in the DRC allows them to recruit local Congolese, and in 2020 they attacked a prison in the city of Beni, releasing more than 1,300 inmates – many of them imprisoned ADF members. The area of North Kivu province is home to an estimated 45 distinct armed militias.


In 2021 President Felix Tshisekedi declared a siege against the ADF in North Kivu and neighboring Ituri provinces, but in doing so the Congolese Armed Forces have been viewed by many as a large-scale driver of the violence in the region. Much like former Mexican president Felipe Calderon declaring a war on the cartels, the ensuing violence escalated, with no real solution to stop it being discussed. A thorough analysis of the ADF’s stated motives and ideology would do well to understand how to combat them in the future. While they have ties to IS, they have equally strong ethnic justification for their actions, and overstating the jihadist ties has led to both Uganda and the DRC to militarize in order to further their own goals outside of combating the ADF which have grave implications for the local populace. No government or armed force in the region is innocent when it comes to committing human rights abuses. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) estimates their current membership at close to 1,500.


In early May, M23 invaded Rubaya, a mining town on the border with Rwanda that the ADF also has a vested interest in controlling. Rubayan mines contain tantalum and coltan, key components of smartphones. Tantalum is one of the “blood minerals” the Congolese government questioned Apple about in a recent letter accusing them of smuggling it in its supply chain. Everyone from the United Nations, U.S. State Department, France and the Congolese president has accused Rwanda of backing the Tutsi ethnic rebels of M23, but Rwanda still denies this claim. M23 is likely being armed by Rwanda in order to put down a Rwandan separatist movement known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FLDR) and is engaged in battles with them as well as the ADF. FLDR is ethnically Hutu, and the clashes harken back to the Tutsi-Hutu conflict at the heart of the Rwandan Genocide. M23 launched an offensive earlier this year to take Sake, a city of two million people in North Kivu. Their ultimate aim is to retake Goma, the capital of North Kivu, and solidify their position as a power player in the region.

 

 


The Congolese Army is now fighting on two fronts against both the ADF, and M23, who are both fighting each other. Many of the refugees left in the wake of the conflict flee to Rwanda, and roughly two thirds of these are children, according to International Crisis Group. Inside camps on both sides of the border, the violence continues, with many of the women susceptible to sexual violence. Blockades by both rebels inside North Kivu has driven food prices sky high, which further affects the supply of foodstuff inside desperate refugee camps. Drinking water is also a scarce commodity, and there is no running water whatsoever.


A ceasefire agreement between the Congolese government and the two rebel groups is being worked through Angola and Rwanda, but with the latter being accused of backing M23, this has been a fruitless endeavor. The Southern African Development Community deployed a peacekeeping force attempting to help the DRC solve the violence, since the United States Mission in the DRC is largely considered a decade long failure. ADF militants have attacked several United Nations peacekeepers in recent years. Russia’s Africa Corps (formerly Wagner) is not bashful about its involvement in mineral rich African countries, trading defense for mineral rights without the moral lecturing on internal affairs the DRC president has accused the United States of doling out. President Tshisekedi has openly lauded the ease of dealing with Beijing and Moscow over Washington, and the DRC could be the latest in African countries leaning towards our competitors in the Great Power Competition.

MORE FROM THE

OAF NATION NEWSROOM

Explainer: Rojava

Explainer: Rojava

“With no trade agreements including Rojava, no import or export mechanisms in place, and no use of airports or ports at all, Rojava stands alone as an island of self reliance in an angry sea.”    -...

Read more
The Great Toyota War

The Great Toyota War

“For decades, Toyota has been the vehicle of choice for warlords, insurgents, counterinsurgents. This battle would solidify its reputation as the go to vehicle for desert warfare. And for good reas...

Read more
#3 Liquid error (layout/theme line 179): Could not find asset snippets/back-in-stock-helper.liquid