EAST AFRICAN LEADERS AGREE REGIONAL ARMY FOR DR CONGO.

NAIROBI: 30/6/2022.

The kind of Africa unifying news that most Pan Africans like Kwameh Nkurumah never lived to witness just happened today in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa, as seven heads of state of the East African Community convened in for an emergency meeting to seek for sustainable Peace and Security especially in the Eastern part of Dr Congo where rebels whom Rwanda has been accused of supporting by their Congolose counterparts are attacking Civilians and government installations. There have been counter artillery attacks by both neighboring Countries on eachother’s territory in the past tense weeks as several mediators attempted to mediate , in vain.

East African leaders agreed Monday to establish a regional force to end conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and called for an immediate ceasefire, the Kenyan presidency said. The announcement to form the first ever East African regional Force was made after a meeting in Nairobi of the seven-member East African Community on the security situation in the eastern DRC after a flare-up of violence. “The heads of state instructed that the regional force should, in cooperation with the military and administrative forces of the DRC, seek to stabilise and secure the peace in the DRC,” the Kenyan presidency said in a statement. “The heads of state also directed that an immediate ceasefire should be enforced and cessation of hostilities should commence immediately,” it said. Those attending Monday’s meeting were presidents Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta along with the leaders of Burundi, South Sudan and Uganda and Tanzania’s ambassador to Nairobi.

The unfortunate Security situation in DR Congo has current, historic as well as prehistoric causes, dimensions and undertones whose solutions have eluded regional and International players overtime. DR Congo has been a victim of several foreign interventions and interferences that have left the Nation totally devastated. Among these foreigners are the same regional neighbors who have all been causes, hotspots, or refugee points, but fully involved. For example, Rwanda and Uganda with the help of their Western allies invaded Congo to topple Mobutu Sese Seko, a worthless and ruthless dictator who had earlier been installed by the Belgians and imparted onto the Congolese after they masterminded the assassination of DR Congo’s first democratically elected leader, Patrice Lumumba shortly after Congo gained formal Independence.

About 5 decades earlier, the Congolese had endured extreme Slavery by the Same Belgians as their Lands were handed over to the King Leopold of Belgium by the Europeans during the scramble and partition of Africa in the 19th century as private property. About ten million Congolose are estimated to have been massacred. The Belgians caused most of the tribal friction and tensions observed in Congo today, as whatever they did with their Francophone Rwanda and Burundi colonies, they also did in the Congo. DR Congo ethnic majority is made up of hundreds of Bantu tribes. It is the most populous Bantu speaking country in the world. However, the Belgians, seeking to impart control over all tribes using ‘divide and rule” strategies, erred further by utilizing other MINORITY Local tribes, empowered, funded and armed them to subdue the masses, torment them and paid them heavily for their loyalty. It is unfortunate the “TUTSI LOOKING” tribes in Congo were also ‘misused” by the Belgians the same way they were misused in Rwanda and hence causing generational hatred and DISTRUST of the TUTSI among the majority Bantu population.

The status and fate of a Banyamulenge in Congo is therefore the same as it was for the TUTSI in Rwanda before 1994 genocide. This generational distrust and mistrust that led to two genocides against Tutsis in Rwanda (1950s and 1990s) as well as one in Burundi has caused unnecessary misunderstandings between these countries today. In Congo, it’s not uncommon to hear a typical Congolose Bantu irrespective of their tribe wrongly blaming Rwanda for what an ethnic Congolese NYAMULENGE (who look and speak like Rwandsese Tutsi) has done. The situation is excarcabated by old facts of the matter whereby Rwanda actually one time supported these groups inorder to curtail the influence of the FDLR Hutu militia (interahamwe) which is accused of masterminding the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Note that, since HUTU milita are Bantu, they were easily adopted in Congo by other Bantu tribes and groups as they basically look the same and their languages are related, whereby they begun another killing spree of ethnic Congolose Banyamulemge whom they perceived to be Tutsis in away or many.
Meanwhile, DR Congo has a weak military and most provinces are governed by war Lords and hundreds of miltias who are sponsored and armed by Western Corporations to protect their illegal extraction and mining activities in Congo, from other militias. These foreign backed mercenary groups have complicated the security scenario further.

The UN also has about 10,000 armed peace Keepers who have been in Congo for the last 2 decades, but with no peaceful results to show. As a main challenge, attempting to deploy a regional force in DR Congo is bound to unsettle not only the Congolose political and Security elite but also the Socioeconomic landscape as most Congolose Politicians and power brokers are beneficiares of these Conflicts and are in close functional business partnership with the same foreign elements who help to protect their loot in France and Brussels. Much as the current situation is most likely a misunderstanding between Congo and Rwanda caused by historical and foreign inequities, it remains to be seen if the regional Force’s operations may not lead to more misunderstandings. The foreign merchants and mercenaries shall also not be impressed with a presence of a new more aggressive and tactful force on their lucrative Business turf that is tasked and permitted to engage any of them directly in combat as per African interests terms