President Faure Gnassingbe Eyadema, a compatriot of another illustrious Togolese mediator in the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by the name of EdemKodjo, was in Kinshasa last week, after the stopover in Luanda, Angola, with Joao Lourenço, currently the current president of the African Union (AU).
President Eyadema is the latest in a long line of mediators and facilitators who have broken their teeth, partly through hypocrisy, partly through lies and duplicity, on the crisis in the eastern part of DRC. Many observers have wondered what Kinshasa’s attitude will be to this new development. Without being privy to the secrets of the gods, the red lines have been drawn in indelible ink during the exploratory talks, if we are to believe the indiscretions in the diplomatic corridors consulted. There was also, at the end of last week, a rise in diplomatic activity.
, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, through the Minister of State Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, who has demonstrated the urgency and necessity for the United Nations Security Council to overcome its inaction in order to push for the concrete implementation of Resolution 2773, in the face of the massacres, looting and trampling on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of DRC. There have also been, concomitantly, the clear and unambiguous positions taken by Washington with President Donald Trump’s Africa Adviser, Mr Massad Boulos, who has recently visited the Great Lakes sub-region of Africa with a clear message from his President to Paul Kagame, YoweriMuseveni and William Ruto on the issue of the eastern DRC. Namely, that both sides, and Rwanda in particular, should withdraw their troops and stop supporting the M23. The White House’s Mr Africa has once again hammered home this message to the press. The expression used by the Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, Corinne Sanders, has left no room for ambiguity. She was above all ruthless. In other words, we must stop what she has called the « forum shopping », the new invention of the Rwandan President and his supporters. The forum shopping consists of going from one mediation to another, at whim, from one facilitator to another, with the aim of gaining time and drowning out the 2773 resolution by counting on the lassitude of the protagonists as well as the actors of the international community.
In so doing, President Kagame is ostensibly projecting himself into the period after 2028, hoping to have nothing more to do with Felix Tshisekedi after his second constitutional term, while relying on his men undercover in DRC and his various partners within the Security Council to deflect the pressure and continue the destabilisation. Kinshasa knows this, or should know it. What is the effective response? The deal with the United States should, in principle, lead to the training of Congolese military experts in leading US schools, followed by the deployment of American security experts to ensure that the theory matches the reality on the ground. There is talk in particular of the famous Frontier Services Group. But it will be necessary to go further and resolutely.
Following the arrest in Kinshasa of the Indian Jaqtami, the watchword must be a thorough clean-up. The leitmotiv should be to release and motivate the defence forces, in all its compartments, including the Wazalendo, with all the means necessary to put an end once and for all to certain upheavals. The judiciary will finally have to get back to work to clean up the political and media arena once and for all, but also and above all the security situation. The test is not a game, far from it. The survival of DRC as a State and a Nation depends on the decision and commitment of all Congolese. At a time when internal and external conciliators are multiplying their efforts to make a mockery of Resolution 2773, in the light of the cynicism of Luxembourg, in particular, as one of the last host countries for blood minerals.Kinshasa will be judged on its ability to make the right diagnosis and take the most appropriate measures here and now. 2028 is already tomorrow.