Kenya deploys troops to join regional force in war-torn eastern DRC

Nairobi — Kenyan President William Ruto on Wednesday officially deployed troops to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to join an East African regional force aiming to end decades of bloodshed.

The seven countries of the East African Community (EAC), which the DRC joined this year, agreed in April to set up a joint force to fight militia groups in the DRC’s east. The Kenyan troops will join a contingent from Burundi.

Despite billions of dollars spent on one of the UN’s largest peacekeeping forces, more than 120 armed groups continue to operate across large swathes of eastern DRC, including the M23 rebels, who the DRC has repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting. Kigali denies the claims.

Uganda has already sent troops into the DRC as part of separate deployment to chase down an Islamic State-linked armed militants, one of the warring groups there. 

“We all have a stake in a stable Democratic Republic of Congo and its security,” Ruto said at a send-off ceremony for the troops in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

Ruto called the mission “necessary and urgent” for regional security. He also said the UN and AU had given “tacit” backing to the Kenyan deployment. A UN spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request to confirm whether the body had formally approved the deployment.

A UN source said there has been some uncertainty around Kenya’s deployment because Nairobi wanted international funding, which requires an official mandate from the UN Security Council or the AU.

“We have been working very hard to mobilise the international community to support the east African force,” Kenyan defence minister Aden Duale said at the event.

On Wednesday morning, several thousand people held a demonstration in the city of Bukavu, eastern DRC, against the regional force because, they said, some of their “enemies” were member countries of the EAC.

On Tuesday, civilians attacked a UN  peacekeeping when it stopped at an army checkpoint near an internally displaced people site in Kanyarutshinya, 8km from the city of Goma. Two people were injured.

A crowd assembled and threw stones at the convoy, setting fire to at least one truck, the UN’s Monusco mission said. Peacekeepers fired warning shots into the air and finally left the area, it said.

Frustration has grown in the region this year with the UN mission, which civilians accuse of failing to protect them from worsening militia violence. Dozens of people were killed in anti-UN protests in July.

Fighting resumed between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army on October 20, causing at least 90,000 people to flee their homes.

Earlier on Tuesday, the UN announced a “strategic and tactical” withdrawal of 450 peacekeepers from Rumangabo, located further north, near Virunga National Park.

Reuters