What does it mean to be Congolese today?
People are asking the question, but it is really difficult to find an answer, even for the 110 million people divided into 250 ethnic groups who live in the DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo
The DRC gained independence from Belgium in 1960, on par with Rwanda and Burundi. It is not to be confused with Congo-Brazaville, which was a French colony until 64 years ago.
The DRC is thus a product of decolonization that today is at once one of the richest in resources but also one of the most corrupt, violent, and poor. As of the 1990s, war in the eastern part of the DRC has killed some 6 million people, the highest number in any conflict since World War II.
Today humanitarian catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the consequence of a 30-year conflict that escalated after 1994, when the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda sent a million people, mostly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus and some members of the minority pygmy ethnic group, into the neighboring country.
"A human tide arrived in Goma, which in 1994 had a population of less than 300,000 and looked like a large village," testified Onesphore Sematumba (@SEMATUMBA), who was a teacher at the time. "The children, the elderly, the livestock, the tanks, the trucks, the whole army, the government, half of Rwanda came to the city without facilities or supervision. With nothing," he added from Goma, which today is home to more than a million inhabitants, the vast majority of them displaced.
This "never-ending" war has since been concentrated in the eastern part of former Zaire, where an estimated 100 armed groups now operate and are too little talked about in the West. Two armed groups, however, are of greater importance: the ADF, an acronym that stands for Allied Democratic Forces, which originated in Uganda and operates mainly in North Kivu and Ituri along the Ugandan border, as well as in Uganda. The ADF is characterized by being particularly brutal and aggressive, invading villages and beheading villagers.
Fifteen civilians were thus killed last Friday in the Beni region of North Kivu in yet another attack by this Islamic State-affiliated group.
The second group is the Coopérative pour le développement du Congo, better known as CODECO. It is an ethnic group that operates in northern Ituri, representing the claims of the Lendu ethnic group (farmers) versus the Hema ethnic group (pastoralists/farmers).
Then there is, of course, the M23, formed in April 2012 by members of the rebel group National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP). It was disbanded in 2009 when it was integrated into the Congolese Armed Forces at the end of the so-called Third Congo War.
A decade ago, the M23 had already occupied large areas of North Kivu, including Goma, but then laid down its arms. However, the war resumed in October 2023, when the M23 ended a precarious truce after the government unsuccessfully demanded complete withdrawal from occupied territories in North Kivu, labeling M23 members as terrorists.
Today, the group has no interest in withdrawing from the areas it controls, primarily because it would have no economic prospects in Rwanda but, more importantly, because North Kivu is extremely rich in coltan and cobalt, which is important for the entire IT and renewable energy sector.
The M23 currently controls the coltan mines around Rubaia, while in February 2024, data were published that exports from Rwanda of minerals-gold, coltan, tungsten, and kassite-have increased in the past year by 43 percent, worth more than one billion euros. It is known that many of these minerals come from eastern Congo, where the "endless" conflict today is fueled by global economic interests. To delve deeper into the tragedy of Congo/DRC, I interviewed Marco Puzzolo, regional area manager of @coopi.
A must-read on @VITAnonprofit (in Italian, here)