Kolwezi, April 15th, 2025 (CPA). – The university community in Lualaba, in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was made aware on Tuesday of the need for national cohesion in the face of the Rwandan aggression and its M23/AFC supporters, by the Minister of Higher and University Education (Esu), during an awareness-raising event.
‘As in the past, the enemy is using our own brothers or so-called brothers and sisters as puppets to weaken our country. This is an opportunity to say that, whatever the reason, Congolese as we are, we cannot be used as a channel to betray our country and kill our own brothers (…) The solution for us in Lualaba is national cohesion to change and contribute to the rebirth of the Congo’, declared Marie-Thérèse Sombo Ayanne, Minister of Higher and University Education. She asked the university community to get involved in promoting national unity, while banishing legitimate political divisions and internal community conflicts in the best interests of the nation. ‘We should have a love of country and love each other in spite of our origins, tribes and ethnic groups, which constitute a cultural richness for us’, she argued. For her part, the governor of Lualaba, Fifi Masuka Saini, praised the efforts being made by the Minister of Education in her sector to respond to President Félix Tshisekedi’s call for the general mobilization of the population and every member of the government. The provincial authority took the opportunity to ask the various scientific and academic figures in Lualaba to formulate proposals and ways out of this Rwandan aggression. To this end, she called for a reform that would introduce compulsory military service for students before they go on to university.
Yvon Mwengwe Muhongo, President of the Conference of Heads of Schools of Esu Lualaba and Rector of the University of Kolwezi, thanked the university community of Lualaba for the mobilization and the welcome given to the Minister, before paying a vibrant tribute to the Head of State Félix Tshisekedi and Governor Fifi Masuka for their support to the university community of Lualaba. The Lualaba students also expressed their firm commitment to promoting unity in order to combat the division, treachery and instrumentalism orchestrated by the executioners of certain citizens who are enemies of the DRC. ‘Faced with the situation our country is going through, the choice is clear: rally behind the Head of State Félix Tshisekedi, our valiant FARDC and Wazalendo to drive the enemy out of the national territory’, said Isabelle Ifanda, general delegate and president of all the students of Lualaba. The meeting, organised by the Ministry of Education to raise awareness of patriotic issues, was attended by various authorities, including the President of the Lualaba Provincial Assembly Jean-Marie Kaseya Tshingambo, staff and several thousand students. ACP/