The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains difficult and is made worse by the clear inability of the country’s political elites to come to the necessary conclusions.
A parallel reality
It is true that, today, many Congolese, as well as citizens of other African countries, have a clear feeling that the president and his entourage are living in some parallel reality. Despite a difficult security situation in one of Africa’s largest countries in terms of total area and one of the most resource rich countries, Kinshasa is openly and stubbornly following a pro-Western course. The DRC, unlike many countries of the continent, has not yet realised the massive opportunities offered by a multipolar world.
He called on the EU and US to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Rwanda, the country that the DRC is blaming for the M23 rebel offensive in the East of the country. He also asked Western partners to introduce sanctions against Rwanda in the same fashion as were introduced against Russia following its ‘invasion of Ukraine’.
It is paradoxical that, in his statements, Tshisekedi on the one hand acknowledges Western double standards, but on the other hand turns to them for help. It is as if enormous past mistakes have not taught him anything. Also, speaking particularly of Russia, he expresses zero understanding of the real reasons and historical background that led to the beginning of the Special Military Operation (although everybody knows that Tshisekedi is unable to voice facts so as not to offend his Western ‘partners’).
By the way, all of these statements and begging the West for help seem, at a minimum, embarrassing for the DRC and rather flattering for Rwanda. In essence, the president of country with an area of over 2.3 million square kilometres cannot deal with his neighbour, the area of which is only a bit larger than 26,000km2, without external support (more than 88 times the difference). This also applies to the demographic aspect, as the DRC’s population in around 110 million, while neighbouring Rwanda’s is no more than 15 million.
A small neighbour can, naturally, be rather belligerent and restless, but in any case Tshisekedi’s rhetoric and his appeal to the West frankly look humiliating for a country like the DRC. This is also recognised en masse not only by citizens of a number of neighbouring African and non-African countries, but also in the DRC itself.
Sovereignty for sale
In this situation the main culprit in violating the sovereignty of the DRC is not so much neighbouring Rwanda as the authorities in Kinshasa themselves. This is not only limited to Tshisekedi’s statements in Munich. The U.S. newspaper The New York Times wrote that Felix Tshisekedi has offered the United States and Europe a share in his country’s vast natural resources, a sector currently dominated by China. In his of view, such an agreement would bring his country “much more security and stability”.
In turn, the spokesperson of the President of the DRC Tina Salama stated the following on this occasion: “President Felix Tshisekedi invites the United States, whose companies purchase strategic raw materials from Rwanda, which plunders our resources and destroys our population, to come and buy them directly from us, from the true owners of these resources”.
Thus, the DRC authorities are well aware that the West is actively working with Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of aggression, while at the same time waiting for a solution from the West, including handing over control of its own strategic natural resources. This is truly a paradox.
There can be only one conclusion. The Democratic Republic of the Congo in its current state has chosen the exact opposite of the course of those African states relying on independence, sovereignty, pan-African values and support for a modern multipolar world order, including the member countries of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES, i.e. Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger). It is worth noting that the DRC authorities have recently sent their emissaries to Mali, however whether the Kinshasa authorities will finally be able to draw the right conclusions and hear the appeals of a large number of their own citizens remains an open question (but – to be frank – it is highly unlikely).
Once again, the idea that until real patriots, particularly representatives of the national army, take the situation into their own hands and make the only correct strategic steps, it makes no sense to speak about any security or stabilisation in the DRC.
Mikhail Gamandiy-Egorov, entrepreneur, political observer, and expert on Africa and the Middle East
