ADF STAFF
Nearly 2,000 kilometers from the seat of the government in Kinshasa, the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been beset by violence for decades. Recent tensions have surged with the revitalized M23 rebel group, backed by neighboring Rwanda.
Mere months after the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) fully deployed to the eastern region in April 2023, government authorities began criticizing the force for playing the role of peace facilitator instead of defending civilians and defeating rebel groups.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi was well aware of his citizens’ anger and frustration with the United Nations peacekeeping mission known as MONUSCO that has had a presence in the same region for more than two decades. So, he asked both missions to leave the DRC by the end of this year.
“In late August, we told our partners that the EACRF had one month to open up the road between Rumangabo and Goma by force, in order to transport equipment to rehabilitate the pre-cantonment site for M23. Nothing has been done,” a Tshisekedi advisor told The Africa Report magazine.
The EACRF has insisted that its purpose is to facilitate political solutions between the government and various armed groups through dialogue.
When it began deploying in November 2022, the EACRF’s mandate was to “contain, defeat and eradicate negative forces.”
But after an EAC summit in May, the regional force was instructed to protect civilians, secure towns and areas vacated by the M23 as part of the peace process, and support the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Stephanie Lizzo, a junior analyst with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development monitoring group, said the EACRF’s mandate has been a source of consternation and confusion.
“Confusion and inconsistency have enshrouded the force’s objectives,” she wrote in a recent blog post for the Wilson Center. “Despite its established peace enforcement mandate, the force’s officials have maintained that the EACRF was intended to be ‘neutral’ and can only engage in military confrontation as a ‘last resort.’”
A new offensive by the M23 brought fighting closer to the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma, as the number of IDPs has hit a record 6.9 million people, according to the U.N.
The EACRF has tried to create and enforce a buffer zone between the M23 and the Congolese military (FARDC), which often collaborates with pro-government militias known as Wazalendo.
The EACRF’s Burundian contingent is based in Kilolirwe, Kitchanga and Sake. Kenyan Soldiers are in Kibumba, Kishishe and Rumangabo. South Sudanese troops also are in Rumangabo, while the Ugandan contingent is based in Bunagana, Kiwanja and Mabenga.
But even before the EACRF began to deploy, there were concerns about giving each troop-contributing country a distinct mission.
“There are significant risks in the EAC going ahead with a combat mission,” Nelleke van de Walle, Great Lakes Region project director for the Crisis Group, wrote in August 2022. “Armed interventions in the region do not have a strong record of enduring success, and enlisting countries with strategic and economic interests in the region could escalate an already dangerous situation.”
Lizzo’s October 30 analysis showed those concerns have proved valid.
“These competing interests are impossible to eliminate,” she wrote. “It is crucial for the EACRF to ensure a unified, coherent mission among its member countries, even while acknowledging these distinctive individual interests.”
Similar challenges await the Southern African Development Community regional bloc, which has specified neither details nor a timeline for the deployment of its troops (SAMIDRC) to the DRC.
In a November 4 meeting in Luanda, Angola, regional leaders talked of providing “strategic guidance on the deployment” to restore peace and security in the country.
With the EACRF and thousands of members of MONUSCO preparing for a possible departure, experts have found it impossible to predict the future for the eastern DRC and its various regional forces.
“It is still unclear how EACRF and SAMIDRC would co-exist, and existing challenges of coordination between MONUSCO and EACRF indicate these difficulties would likely persist,” she wrote, noting that the EACRF’s mandate is set to expire on December 8.
“In this complex web of mandates, interests and security dynamics, the EACRF’s journey in the DRC remains a puzzle with no easy solution, much like the intricate geopolitics it navigates.”
