“As neighbours, the destiny of the DRC is linked to ours”, launched President William Ruto in Nairobi during a ceremony to present the contingent ready to leave, recalling that the regional force must also include soldiers from the Burundi, Uganda and South Sudan, sent “on a mission to protect humanity”.
“We will not allow armed groups, criminals and terrorists to deprive us of our common prosperity”, continued the Kenyan head of state, without specifying the timetable for the deployment of the troops.
Military sources in Nairobi declined to reveal the number of Kenyan soldiers involved in the operation, citing “obvious security issues”.
The DR Congo is trying to counter the activities of dozens of armed groups that are proliferating in the east of this immense country, which is very rich in natural resources.
Tension has been particularly high in the province of North Kivu since the resurgence of the M23 (“March 23 Movement”), a former Tutsi rebellion which took up arms again at the end of last year. After weeks of calm, the M23 has been on the offensive since October 20 in the territory of Rutshuru, where it has seized towns on a strategic road axis serving Goma.
The rebels have notably reached Rumangabo in recent days, the headquarters of a Congolese army base and the headquarters of the Virunga National Park, famous for its mountain gorillas.
– “Alert level” –
After months of tension and accusations of “aggression”, Kinshasa, which accuses Kigali of supporting the M23 rebellion, decided on Saturday to expel the Rwandan ambassador to the DRC. A decision that Kigali “noted with regret”.
For their part, the Rwandan authorities also accused the DRC at the end of October of “operating alongside irregular armed militias”, including the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), a movement of Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom are involved in the genocide of Tutsi in 1994 in Rwanda.
Kinshasa authorities have in the past denied any collusion with the FDLR.
This deterioration in the situation has alarmed the international community, with the African Union calling for a ceasefire.
The renewed tension in the east has led the UN mission in the DRC (Monusco) to “raise the alert level” of its troops in support of the Congolese armed forces in their operations against the M23.
A Monusco convoy was attacked on Tuesday by an angry crowd in Goma, injuring two peacekeepers.
For several months, the UN blue helmets, present in the DRC for more than 20 years, have been accused of ineffectiveness in the fight against the armed groups which have terrorized eastern DRC for nearly three decades.
A report by experts commissioned by the United Nations Security Council had detailed Rwanda’s direct involvement, “unilaterally or jointly with M23 fighters” in eastern Congo.
Kigali challenged these “invalid allegations” and advanced its “right to defend its territory”.
