AU to fund SADC mission in DR Congo

By Moise Bahati, KIGALI Rwanda

The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council has asked the AU Commission to “mobilize requisite support” for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) military mission in eastern DR Congo, including from its Peace Fund and the provision of equipment.

Joint meeting between the military of the DRC and the SADC in Goma, 16 January 2024. 

The decision to fund the SADC mission known as SAMIDRC was made at a March 4 meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council which discussed the conflict in eastern DR Congo, where a government-led coalition is fighting the M23 rebels.

The SADC force, made up of troops from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania, is part of the coalition which also includes Burundian soldiers, and militias like the FDLR, a terrorist group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The UN-sanctioned militia is also accused spreading genocide ideology against Congolese Tutsi communities in eastern DR Congo.

Prior to the meeting, Rwanda had expressed concerns about AU’s support to SAMIDRC, saying the decision “would undermine peaceful settlement” of the decades-long crisis in eastern DR Congo.

In a letter sent to AU Commission chairperson, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Biruta said AU support to the SADC forces “can only exacerbate the conflict.”

“SAMIDRC as an offensive force in coalition with these elements cannot substitute for a political process that has been blocked by the Government of [DR Congo]. Therefore, the African Union is urged to not ‘authorise’ or fund SAMIDRC,” Biruta said.

Biruta said the Rwandan government’s position was that “the conflict has persisted in eastern DR Congo because the international community has deliberately ignored the root causes, which include support to and preservation of Rwandan genocidal forces in eastern DR Congo.”

Added to that he said was the “refusal of the government of DR Congo to address genuine grievances of the Congolese Tutsi, and refusal to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Congolese refugees scattered in the region.”

Rwanda hosts over 100,000 refugees from DR Congo, some of whom have spent 28 years in camps.

Rwanda is also part of the AU-backed Luanda process that is mediated by Angola’s President Joao Lourenço, and through which seeks to restore diplomatic relations between DR Congo and Rwanda, which were affected by the conflict in North Kivu province.

The AU said it still supported the Luanda process and its sister initiative known as the Nairobi process, which is led by the East African Community.

In the statement, however, the AU Peace and Security Council failed to mention Rwanda, only referring to it and DR Congo as “the two sisterly countries.”

It called for immediate and unconditional cessation of hostilities, noting “worsening insecurity due to the debilitating activities of M23, ADF, FDLR, other negative forces and armed groups in the eastern DRC and the resultant dire humanitarian situation that continues to adversely impact the population in affected communities.”

Eastern DR Congo has been volatile for nearly 30 years and remains home to more than 130 armed groups. Multiple interventions have failed to end decades of violence.