As M23 Conflict Grinds on in Eastern DRC, Calls Mount for Nonmilitary Solution

ADF STAFF

The seemingly intractable conflict between the M23 rebel group and security forces in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has some observers pressing for an alternative solution to avoid a regional war in the heart of Africa.

“A military option is clearly not adequate to address the deep-seated historical, ethnic and resource-based fault lines throughout central Africa, as they play out in the DRC,” Anthoni van Nieuwkerk of the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs at the University of South Africa wrote recently in The Conversation. “To augment stabilization measures, African leaders must pursue diplomatic options.”

At the top of that list of diplomatic options is a ceasefire between M23, the DRC military, and peacekeeping forces that include the United Nations and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) mission led by South Africa.

M23 is the most prominent of dozens of groups fighting over land and resources in the mineral-rich eastern DRC. The people of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces are caught in the middle.

“The people of DRC are astonishingly resilient. But they are being pushed to the brink of catastrophe by overwhelming challenges,” Joyce Msuya, the U.N.’s assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and deputy emergency relief coordinator, told the Security Council in April.

A 15-day ceasefire declared on July 5 was violated a week later when artillery that witnesses said came from M23 positions killed two children and injured others in Bweremana, a community about 15 kilometers west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

After a 15-day extension of the ceasefire was announced in mid-July, Ugandan authorities reported they would host high-level talks between the DRC and M23 — a claim M23 confirmed and Congolese officials denied.

“No-one has been mandated by the government for any such discussion with the terrorists of the RDF (Rwanda Defence Force) or M23 in Kampala,” DRC Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya posted on X.

Rwanda’s support for M23 has driven a wedge between the leaders of Rwanda and the DRC that observers worry could provoke a larger conflagration. The situation prompted sharp words between the Rwandan and Congolese representatives at the United Nations recently, with the Congolese representative accusing Rwanda of foiling peace efforts in order to build a zone of influence in the eastern DRC.

Leaders across the continent and around the world are calling for de-escalating the conflict in eastern DRC and to find a negotiated settlement to end the fighting. The solution must start with the leaders, according to van Nieuwkerk.

“The unwillingness of ruling elites throughout central Africa to accept responsibility for the war raises the question of what needs to be done to promote peace and development,” he wrote.

Toward that end, the African Union has dispatched Angolan President João Lourenço to mediate between leaders of the DRC and Rwanda. He has met with each separately in Luanda and brought them together on the sidelines of the African Union summit in February.

The DRC, Rwanda, and their regional neighbors have all agreed to recognize the Luanda and Nairobi peace processes created in 2022 as paths toward securing eastern DRC. Both processes call for a supervised ceasefire and for eliminating the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, whose leaders want to overthrow the Rwandan government.

In the meantime, experts call for boosting the financially strapped SADC mission to give mediators room to operate. The SADC mission will be the only peacekeeping presence in the region when the U.N. withdraws at the end of the year. Since deploying to the region, the mission has been plagued by equipment problems and has suffered multiple deaths from M23 attacks.

Even if negotiators can find a peaceful resolution to the conflict with M23, that will solve only one of the many issues confronting the eastern DRC, according to Andrew McGregor of the Jamestown Foundation.

“As with most long-term conflicts, many of the varied participants in the struggle for Nord-Kivu (North Kivu) have found ways to profit from its extension rather than its resolution, discouraging any foreseeable improvements in security,” McGregor wrote.