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The West has failed in Congo; it must take a back seat

It is not the role of Western powers to take centre stage in Africa's conflict resolution processes
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Fighting has resumed in Eastern Congo between the M23 rebels and the government coalition, which includes the genocidal FDRL group. And as more territory falls under rebel control, more papers written by supposed Western experts on the DRC, purporting to remind the ‘international community’ of its responsibilities towards the country, have appeared in prominent media outlets such as Al Jazeera. However, Koen Vlassenroot and Christoph Vogel’s article “How the world keeps failing eastern DRC” is a good illustration of the inability of Westerners to step back and let Africans take the lead in resolving their crises without undermining their initiatives. If you ever thought that over 20 years of failure to resolve Congo’s crises would bring humility to some corners, you were wrong.

Consider this. While Vlassenroot and Vogel begin by listing the many failures of Western powers over the past two decades, they stop short of drawing the logical conclusion – that Western powers are not equipped to deal with the crisis in Congo and should step back. The two authors note that these powers have pumped billions into peacekeeping and conflict resolution, that they lack “an in-depth understanding of political realities, constructive strategy and innovative diplomacy at key levels of international decision-making, and that [their] responses to the crisis in the DRC are often informed by simplistic readings of the causes of war”. Yet despite all this, and the fact that there is nothing to show for the billions spent on peacekeeping and conflict resolution, Vlassenroot and Vogel, for reasons best known to themselves, seem to expect these powers to recognise their mistakes, change their ways and stop ‘failing’ Congo. They expect a sober reckoning with changing realities from “those representing the slowly fading system of Western liberal interventionism and conflict resolution”.

At this point one wonders why Vlassenroot and Vogel would expect those who are unable to face changing realities in their own backyard in Eastern Europe to pay attention to changing realities in Eastern Congo or elsewhere in Africa. It’s also unclear whether Congolese who have spent the last two decades in exile and are now fighting for their right to return under the M23 banner should put their lives on hold until this reckoning takes place in the West and helps to bring them home.

At any rate, whether the objective is for the West to retain some influence in the Great Lakes region in particular and Africa in general or to end the Kinshasa-M23 conflict, there is a solution for Western powers which carries good news and bad news. The bad news is that it is a complicated solution because it requires the reintroduction of a concept that has left the West since the fall of the Soviet Union: humility. This solution requires Westerners to shed their saviour complex and accept that they are not the centre of the universe, especially as the conflict is not in Europe or America but in the heart of Africa. The good news for lazy technocrats at the UN and in Western capitals is that this solution that does not require acquiring new knowledge about Congo. Which is why it is surprising that Vlassenroot and Vogel could have overlooked the easy way for Western powers to achieve their goal of retaining the good will of Africans. The solution is twofold:  first, stop making unilateral declarations that fuel Kinshasa’s intransigence, then support mediation efforts that are spearheaded and led by Africans.

African mediators (Angola’s President João Lourenço and Kenya’s former President Uhuru Kenyatta), African leaders including Kenya’s William Ruto, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and former South African President Thabo Mbeki, have all come to the same conclusion: political dialogue between the M23 and the Congolese government is a must. So far, only France’s Emmanuel Macron has publicly supported this position. Other Western countries, such as the US and Belgium, have continued with their unhelpful boycott of the M23. This must change. The legitimate grievances of the M23 cannot be ignored, and the efforts of African mediators to bring the rebels to the negotiating table should not be undermined by Western actors such as governments, media, academia and so-called human rights organisations. They have no skin in the game, and their boycott and vilification campaigns against the M23 have served only to fuel Kinshasa’s refusal to address the root causes of the M23’s resurgence and engage constructively with the rebels. It is simply ridiculous for these Western actors to complain about the resumption of hostilities between the M23 and the government coalition and the humanitarian conditions resulting from these clashes while doing everything to prevent a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Similarly, it makes no sense for Vlassenroot and Vogel, like Bintou Keïta, the head of the UN mission in Congo before them, to report on the crisis in Congo without mentioning the FDLR even once, and then to turn around and accuse Western powers of inconsistency in dealing with Rwanda. This is a clear case of misinformation that may be designed to remove the context of Rwanda’s involvement in Congo and how its defensive actions are perceived by the international community. Put simply, Rwanda’s security concerns must be addressed. There is no way around this if the goal is to end the standoff between Rwanda and Congo. Security experts from Angola, Rwanda and Congo agree on this imperative. It is time for Western powers to rally around this consensus and give it the support it needs.

In any case, if Western powers step back and support African-led mediation efforts, there will be many benefits. First, it will drastically change Kinshasa’s reliance on Western moral support in its stubborn refusal to embrace wholeheartedly all de-escalation steps. Kinshasa’s lack of seriousness is seen in forcing the withdrawal of the East African forces that had enforced a ceasefire and other actions which have stalled mediation efforts, such as the recent disowning of its own security experts’ endorsement of a plan to neutralise the FDLR.

Secondly, it will dissuade MONUSCO from supporting the Congolese army, the FARDC, that is collaborating with genocidal groups, armed militias and [European] mercenaries, in contravention of UN resolutions.

Thirdly, it will send a clear message to the South African-led SADC forces that there will be no UN funding for their militaristic adventure in the DRC. It is such funding that they are banking on to sustain their deployments in the long term. If SADC’s recent disengagement from Mozambique where financial rather than humanitarian considerations were central to the decision is indication of anything, President Ramaphosa is likely to see the light and be true to the words he uttered after his visit to Kigali in April this year, where he stressed the need for a political solution to the conflict in the DRC.

Finally, with Kinshasa and South Africa in a more conciliatory mood, Burundi, which does not have the means to sustain a conflict of this nature and magnitude on its own, will most likely return to a more reasonable attitude.

In other words, less Western interference, not more, will do justice to the Congolese and their neighbours. In this way, the world will not fail the DRC again. Vlassenroot and Vogel should agree that it is not the role of Western powers to take centre stage in Africa’s conflict resolution processes; they should focus on their own European backyard where they are currently unable to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine.

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