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Rwandan security officers escort members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), who surrendered in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after fighting between M23 rebels and the FARDC, in Gisenyi, Rwanda, on January 27 2025. Picture: REUTERS/JEAN BIZIMANA
Rwandan security officers escort members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), who surrendered in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after fighting between M23 rebels and the FARDC, in Gisenyi, Rwanda, on January 27 2025. Picture: REUTERS/JEAN BIZIMANA

This week the international community finally woke up from the unfolding nightmare in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), urging both the DRC and Rwanda to return to talks and iron out issues related the violence. 

But words are cheap, action speaks louder. 

In the past week, M23, the Rwanda-backed rebel group, launched one of its most brutal assaults on the eastern part of the DRC. SA, which is part of the regional peacekeeping force, lost 14 soldiers.

As the rebels advanced towards Goma, which they took over for a few hours, the UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting and condemned the invasion. On learning that four more of its soldiers had died, Pretoria arranged a call between Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s strongman, and his bête noire President Cyril Ramaphosa. Both men are known to have agreed to press for a ceasefire.

The UN has called for Rwanda’s withdrawal.

William Ruto, Kenya’s president, has called an emergency meeting of the East African Community to discuss the crisis. Kagame has agreed to meet Felix Tshisekedi, his DRC counterpart. For his part, Tshisekedi, who is now looking at prolonging his stay in power, has withdrawn his diplomats from Kigali and asked Rwanda’s to leave Kinshasa.

All these steps are important and welcome. It matters that the global community cares about this long-running conflict.

But these strong words are insufficient to end the misery the Congolese have endured for years. They will not bring back the dead civilians and peacekeepers who have been slaughtered by the rebels. Also, they fail to deal with the elephant in the room: Rwanda’s cynical role in the conflict.

Strong words need to be followed by actions.

In today’s summit, Kagame will repeat his ritual claims that he is not supporting M23 and that he is being scapegoated for worrying about the national sovereignty and security of his post-genocide country.

He is right to be concerned about the security of his country. After all, nearly 1-million Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed in 90 days during a genocide that the world turned a blind eye to. He deserves credit for both putting a stop to this and helping to reconstruct his country.

However, he has used this human tragedy to manipulate world opinion and to justify his interference in the affairs of the DRC.

As many post-conflict societies show, Rwanda’s reconciliation was imperfect. Replacing one tribe with another is not a durable solution. Despite the reconciliation efforts, huge swathes of Hutus fled to neighbouring DRC. They are destabilising it and pose a threat to Rwanda.

However, the threat to Rwanda is deliberately exaggerated by Kagame to sponsor M23 and suppress internal political opposition.

A ceasefire would be the next logical step in facilitating political dialogue among Congolese and between the DRC and Rwanda. The international community must guarantee this. This will be a costly exercise which will require the deployment of massive human and financial resources and superior military hardware to reset the balance of power.

SA, which has a disproportionately higher deployment in the peacekeeping force, needs to take a direct role in the conflict. This week’s call is a start. Intense diplomacy is the next. Kagame needs to know there are consequences to meddling in other countries’ affairs and that all options remain on the table.

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