November 10, 2025
S’installant très lentement dans le débat européen, la notion de charge raciale se heurte encore aux préjugés et amnésies opportunes....
While the Kivu provinces continue to be colonized by the M23, equipped and financed by the Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame, the “strategy” of the Congolese president, Félix Tshisekedi, is increasingly contested. In the Congo as in the diaspora. Lack of military victories on the ground combined with timid Western pressure against the Kagame regime…
At the end of January, the militias of the “March 23 Movement” (M23) and soldiers of the Rwandan army took control of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, killing more than 3,000 people, according to a provisional report from the United Nations.
Continuing their murderous advance, the anti-government group seized, on February 14, the Kavumu airport, located around thirty kilometers from Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu with a million inhabitants. According to several sources, unlike Goma, the city of Bukavu has not yet come under total control of the M23. Fighting continues, in several localities or on the outskirts of the city, between M23 and FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo).
Shootings were also exchanged between M23 fighters and bands of looters, having recovered weapons abandoned by the FARDC during their retreat in the face of the M23 advance. Several witnesses reported looting in supermarkets, stored supplies at the city’s large market as well as in a World Food Program (WFP) warehouse.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), several dozen summary executions – including of children – were carried out by the M23 militias during their attack on Bukavu. For the United Nations body, another 10,000 to 15,000 people fled the city towards Burundi and its capital Bujumbura.
Kivu separated from the DRC
The day after the incursion, on February 15, the M23 issued a press release demanding that the population of Bukavu organize themselves “into vigilance committees to ensure security”. The armed group also ordered “the immediate withdrawal” of Burundian soldiers. As a reminder, alongside Burundi (10,000 soldiers), Uganda and South Africa also have soldiers deployed in the east of the DRC in support of the Congolese army.
The following days, while the inhabitants of Bukavu tried to resume their activities, M23 meetings took place in certain communes of the city. Under the protection of anonymity, a resident of the commune of Ibanda, in the district of Nyalukemba, sent us, on February 20, “some salient points” delivered by the new arms masters of Kivu:
“As of today, traffic in Bukavu will be restored 24 hours a day; no more question of voter cards until further notice; the price of public transport is set at 500 Congolese francs regardless of the route; Soon, the DGDA [General Directorate of Customs and Excise] and DGM [General Directorate of Migration] will be administered by new staff: job creation among young people will be their motive; Young licensees, graduates and graduates must be enlisted in the army, no more question of an army of hemp smokers.”
Asymmetrical balance of military forces
Almost a month ago, on January 29, the President of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi promised “a vigorous response” to the attacks by the M23 and Rwanda. Instead of a “response”, we see a succession of territorial losses for the Congolese army. A spiral and deterioration of security with, as a result, thousands of deaths, injuries, raped women and displaced people.
The first concrete cause of the debacle lies in an asymmetrical military balance of power. Facing the FARDC and its African allies, Rwanda and its M23 “scout” have the latest high-tech weapons.
For several years, Rwanda has amassed a high-tech military arsenal via various suppliers and strategic alliances. Since 2022, Kigali has relied on an increased military partnership with Poland (member of the EU and NATO). In 2023, Rwanda and Turkey (NATO member) strengthened their military cooperation. Bilateral trade between the two countries increased from $33 million to $180 million, including Turkish arms exports to Kigali.
Dictator Paul Kagame also modernized his country’s military stock with Chinese weapons, including PCL-09 self-propelled howitzers (capable of reaching a range of 27 km) and Red Arrow 9A anti-tank missiles (capable of piercing up to 120 cm of armor). Finally, Rwanda (i.e. the M23) has advanced ground-to-air missiles (Chinese FN-6 and Russian Pantsir-S1) as well as GPS jammers ensuring extremely effective airspace control.
Result: neither the forces of MONUSCO nor the soldiers of the South African army, for example, were able to deliver reinforcements or ammunition to the FARDC while the M23 and its Rwandan allies colonized the east of the DRC, with around 10,000 men equipped with “state-of-the-art” war equipment.
Kagame: “A major problem for Africa”
Opposing “a neocolonial process which is based on the plunder of our resources and on ethnic geopolitics”, Kemi Seba, the president of the NGO Urgences Panafricanistes, points out, without embellishment, some constants of a 30-year-long war in the East of the DRC:
“Paul Kagame is supported by the United States and by Western nations: we must have the courage to say it! What is happening today in Kivu is sponsored by Western multinationals. And it is for these reasons that, for so many years, Kagame has felt free to act in the Great Lakes region like a sheriff, a plunderer, a destabilizer and a genocidaire. Which is a tragedy when we know what the worthy Tutsi people experienced in terms of genocide.”
The famous Franco-Beninese activist adds: “Saying this does not authorize – never, as far as I am concerned – the feeling which consists of essentializing this question; to say that it is a problem that comes from all Tutsis, that we must wage war against all Tutsis. Kagame is not all Tutsis! I know countless Tutsis who are against Paul Kagame; who denounce what is happening in the DRC. Kagame is a major problem for Africa! If we do not take this into consideration, we will go back thirty years on a certain number of issues.”
Not sparing “the corrupt Congolese political class which is at the head of the Congo, which is much more into the splendor of power, the simplicity of travel that their roles confer, than in the management of a state of war. », Kemi Seba concludes with a comparison between the DRC and the AES [Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger led by sovereignist and anti-imperialist military regimes]:
“I travel through the AES countries and I know what the countries at war are. This is not the impression that the Congolese political class gives me… There is nothing personal against them but that is not okay: they, and obviously those who preceded them, are co-responsible for this situation in the DRC. »
Co-responsibilities of Tshisekedi
Faced with the Congolese political-military rout, the burst of “patriotic unity” of the first days is cracking on all sides. Like the Congolese opponent, Marie-Josée Ifoku, urging President Tshisekedi to “leave the political scene”. Her radical proposals for “exiting the crisis” can be summarized in five points:
“1) The withdrawal of Félix Tshisekedi from the political scene, like what was asked of Mobutu in 1996, who would exercise a symbolic role until the next elections. 2) The establishment of a restricted crisis government to respond to the security emergency [accompanied by] the appointment of a Prime Minister to ensure a three-year transition. 3) The dissolution of current institutions for the creation of a Council of Elders, responsible for coordinating the transition 4) The constitution of a new National Assembly, representative of the 146 territories of the country. 5) The formation of a special commission, integrating civil society (women, young people, diaspora, intellectuals, artists) in order to ensure patriotic mobilization and popular support for the transition. »
Same story in part of the diaspora where, for example, the Canadian analyst and author of Congolese origin, Patrick Mbeko, continues to chain “shots on target” against the president of the DRC:
“When I listen to many Africans who comment on Congolese news, I see one constant coming back: it is President Tshisekedi’s responsibility for what is happening in Congo. No one understands his posture! And, it is known to everyone, he is very poorly surrounded…”, estimates the author of the works “Secret War in Central Africa” (2015) and “Rwanda: Woe to the Vanquished” (2024).
“I can understand that the EAC [East African Community] and the SADC [Southern African Development Community] disappointed him,” continues Patrick Mbeko. “But not go to the Tanzania Summit, then run to Chad before going to Germany [to the Munich Security Conference]? So, what directly concerns your country with neighboring countries: you don’t go there. And what happens in the West and primarily concerns the West: you go there. It’s all these inconsistencies, this illegibility, which are difficult to understand.”
And the analyst concludes: “In the end, it is Congolese diplomacy which suffers and the Congolese voice is no longer heard. This is the reality: Congolese diplomacy is not credible in anyone’s eyes! All the successive press releases, from the SADC to the European Union, lead us to one conclusion: the Congo cannot convince of the justness of its cause. For what ? Because this country has a president who seems not to understand the articulation of diplomacy, both on the international and regional level, with the consequence of the isolation of the DRC and of himself, both on the African and international scene.
US sanctions calculated
Contrary to these harsh criticisms, it seems that Félix Tshisekedi’s diplomatic agitation, aimed at several Western states, is finally starting to pay off.
First, in the United States. On February 20, the new Trump administration announced individual sanctions against the Rwandan Minister of State, James Kabarebe, right-hand man of the dictator Kagame and against the spokesperson for the M23 and the Congo River Alliance (AFC), Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston as well as two of his companies (Kingston Fresh and Kingston Holding).
The USA judges that these two actors are “linked to violence and human rights violations in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo” and calls on “Rwandan leaders to stop supporting the M23, itself already designated by the United States and the UN, and to withdraw all troops of the Rwandan Defense Forces from the territory of the DRC”.
The European Union, then. Pressured by the tireless lobbying of several European deputies, including the Belgian Marc Botenga (PTB), the European Parliament adopted a resolution aimed at “immediately suspending” the agreement between the European Commission and Rwanda on the trade in strategic minerals (coltan, cobalt, copper, etc.)… largely plundered by the latter, for more than two decades, in Eastern Congo. Many observers were delighted and thought that this resolution would “easily” receive the green light from the Commission.
Luxembourg blocks sanctions against Rwanda
It was on February 24 that the European Commission was, in principle, to adopt the famous parliamentary resolution. It was nothing! “Thanks” to the unbearable rule of “unanimous voting” prior to any decision taken by the EU… Indeed, to the surprise of other member states, Luxembourg blocked the package of sanctions planned against Rwanda and the M23 militias.
Although consensual, the text in question provided for individual sanctions against ten Rwandan officers and M23 warlords as well as the suspension of the agreement on the trade in strategic minerals. Alone against everyone, the Luxembourg Minister of Foreign Affairs, Xavier Bettel, opposed it, visibly very reluctant to suspend the European agreement on minerals.
If the motivations of the refractory minister remained unclear, on the other hand, we know that Rwandan-Luxembourg relations are in “good shape”. In 2023, Xavier Bettel met Paul Kagame to discuss “cooperation” in the financial services sector. Luxembourg aspiring to position itself as a privileged partner in the development of the Kigali Financial Centre; or a financial megaproject by dictator Kagame aimed at making Rwanda the… “Singapore of Africa”.
In order to avoid the snub, European foreign ministers finally declared that there was “a political consensus to impose sanctions depending on the evolution of the situation on the ground”. As for the scandalous minerals deal, it will be “reconsidered”; not “suspended”.
In other words, there are not yet enough corpses, wounded, displaced people and raped women in the east of the DRC for the European Union to exert the minimum amount of pressure against a bloodthirsty dictatorship, potentially capable of destabilizing all of southern Africa.
Olivier Mukuna
© Finkape Roots
Graduated with a Master’s degree in Journalism and Communication from the Free University of Brussels (1997), journalist and essayist Olivier Mukuna has worked for around fifteen Belgian, French and Luxembourg media and signed several audiovisual productions. He specializes in themes linked to systemic racism, decolonial issues and the socio-political news of Afro-descendant citizens in Europe.