Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
The highlights this week: Large protests break out in Uganda, Cameroonians deported from the United States are allowed to return, and an Iowa museum’s art restitution sparks controversy in Nigeria.
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Can Regional Leaders Curb Escalation of Congo Conflict?
The Democratic Republic of the Congo summoned Uganda’s representative in Kinshasa, Matata Twaha Magara, for a meeting on Friday over a U.N. report stating that Rwanda and Uganda have provided support to the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group operating in eastern Congo.
“We need to take a look at the situation in Uganda and how to deal with it,” said Patrick Muyaya, a Congolese government spokesperson. “We have Ugandan soldiers dying alongside Congolese soldiers in Ituri and North Kivu [provinces] fighting the [Allied Democratic Forces], rebels who are originally Ugandans, and, on the other hand, that they are providing support to the rebels.”
The U.N. Security Council’s group of experts focused primarily on Rwanda and M23. Their report said some 3,000-4,000 Rwandan soldiers had fought alongside M23 rebels. “Since the resurgence of the M23 crisis, Uganda has not prevented the presence of M23 and [Rwanda Defence Force] troops on its territory or passage through it,” said the report, released on July 8.
U.N. experts said they had obtained evidence of “active support” by Ugandan military officials, including sanctioned M23 military chief Sultani Makenga traveling to Uganda for meetings.
Uganda has denied involvement. Uganda’s deputy defense spokesperson, Deo Akiiki, called the allegations “laughable, baseless, and illogical.” Since a resurgence of fighting in 2021, M23 has seized large tracts of territory in North Kivu.
The dispute risks escalating a highly complex and deadly war in Congo. Uganda hosts the majority of Congolese refugees, more than 500,000, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. While a humanitarian truce was being put in place, the M23 rebels were “forcibly recruiting young people” while receiving “continuous reinforcements of personnel and equipment” from Rwanda and Uganda, Congo’s deputy prime minister for defense, Guy Kabombo Muadiamvita, said during a cabinet meeting on July 12.
A humanitarian truce that was due to end July 19 was extended by 15 days until Aug. 3, Washington announced last Wednesday, though that truce was only partly respected when it began on July 5. Two children and two teenagers were killed on July 15 in a bombardment around 10 miles west of North Kivu’s capital, Goma.
Fighting also flared in other parts of the country. At least 70 people, including nine soldiers, were killed by the Mobondo militia in a deadly attack on the village of Kinsele in western Congo on July 13.
More than 1.8 million have been driven from their homes in the past six weeks, among the 7.3 million people internally displaced by fighting in Congo, according to U.N. data estimates.
Residents of Bambo, a town north of Goma, warned that the town had sunk further into insecurity after being vacated by M23 rebels, which gave the opportunity for bandits to fill a security void. And at least 10,000 people in Lubero in North Kivu who fled the advance of M23 rebels say they are without aid.
The conflict fueled by Congo’s vast mineral wealth is affecting mining output. The governor of Congo’s South Kivu province on Friday ordered the suspension of all mining activities to “restore order.” Earlier in July, local militias attacked a gold mine in Djugu in Ituri, killing six Chinese miners and at least two Congolese soldiers.
Troops from Malawi, South Africa, and Tanzania have been deployed to Congo since December 2023 as part of a peacekeeping mission sent by the 16-member Southern African Development Community. Yet regional leaders have been urged to apply more pressure on African nations directly involved in the conflict, such as Uganda and Rwanda, in an attempt to de-escalate violence. An African Union meeting over the weekend in Accra, Ghana, barely addressed the conflict in Congo.
Wednesday, July 24, to Thursday, July 25: John Bass, the acting U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, visits Chad and Tanzania in a trip that began on July 20.
Wednesday July 24 to Friday, July 26: African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum held in Washington D.C.
Thursday, July 25: Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube presents his midterm budget.
Monday, July 29: A report is due on the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.
Tuesday, July 30: The U.N. Security Council votes on the adoption of a sanctions extension against the Central African Republic.
Ugandan protests. Security forces in Uganda on Monday cut access to the headquarters of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) ahead of anti-graft protests on Tuesday. The army and police blocked off roads leading to the NUP party offices. Firebrand politician and NUP leader Bobi Wine posted on social media that “[s]everal leaders” had been “violently arrested.” Soldiers and police officers were deployed around Uganda’s parliament, and a number of young demonstrators were arrested during Tuesday’s protests on charges of being a “common nuisance.”
Young people across Africa have taken inspiration from Kenya’s anti-corruption protests, with similar demonstrations against state mismanagement planned for later this month and August in Nigeria and Ghana. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni—who is known for blaming things that anger him on foreign influence—claimed the protests were a plot being operated by unnamed foreigners. Museveni seized power in a coup in 1986. “We are busy producing wealth … and you here want to disturb us. You are playing with fire because we cannot allow you to disturb us,” he said ahead of the demonstrations.
Sudan’s new Iranian ambassador. Sudan’s de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, received new Iranian ambassador Hassan Shah on Sunday—the first posting by Iran in over eight years. Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir cut relations with Iran in 2016 following an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. The two countries resumed ties last October. Burhan deployed his own ambassador to Iran, Abdelaziz Hassan Saleh.
Both Iran and Saudi Arabia have aligned with the Sudanese army to counter the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which receives Emirati support. Sudanese army officials visited Iran in May, and Tehran is accused of supplying drones to the Sudanese army, flouting a U.N. arms embargo, with the United Arab Emirates also supplying weapons to the RSF. By aiding Burhan, security experts believe Iran is attempting to secure a permanent naval base on the Red Sea and a greater position of influence with Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Kenya-Haiti mission. Kenyan and Haitian police recaptured a port on July 17 that had been taken over by gangs, according to Godfrey Otunge, the Kenyan commander of the Multinational Security Support mission to Haiti. The port is located in downtown Port-au-Prince, and its takeover by gangs in March restricted the supply of food and medicine imports to the country. About 400 Kenyan police have been deployed to Haiti so far, as part of an offer to send 1,000 officers to help combat gangs.
U.S. deportation returns. More than two dozen Cameroonian asylum-seekers deported from the United States in 2020 have been allowed to return, after being subjected to abuse in Cameroon and in U.S. immigration detention. The reentry of 27 Cameroonians was granted on humanitarian grounds following a legal challenge by rights groups. The parole is for one year only, during which they can reapply for asylum. The U.S. government is accused of having funded the Cameroonian army despite being aware of the use of child soldiers in the country and torture, murder, and sexual violence committed by Cameroonian security forces and militias against civilians.
The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art has handed back two stolen Benin Bronzes to the Oba (King) of the former Benin Kingdom, which was plundered and razed by British troops in 1897. The decision angered critics who believe returned artifacts should go directly to the Nigerian government and be displayed in a public museum. A brass plaque and wooden altarpiece were returned to Oba Ewuare II in a ceremony last week in Benin City.
“It is not my job to tell people what to do with their own possessions. The two works of art restituted were stolen from the Oba of Benin in 1897, and they belong to him,” said Lauren Lessing, the director of the Stanley Museum of Art.
Ewuare is the current head of the royal family of the former Benin Kingdom. In March, a month after presidential elections in Nigeria, outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari named Benin’s king as the owner of any repatriated artifacts looted from the royal palace, the BBC reported, which caused global debate outrage, especially in Germany, inculding among members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Germany agreed in 2022 to return more than 1,000 Benin Bronzes and wants them displayed in a public museum under construction in Benin City. “The very least we demand from the government is that they stop delivering more bronzes after the trust has been broken,” AfD member Marc Jongen said in the German parliament.
Buhari’s declaration isn’t law, since it needs acknowledgement under new President Bola Tinubu. Instead, Nigeria’s Legacy Restoration Trust (LRT) is authorized to deal with restituted objects and is accountable only to its board, consisting of the Nigerian government, the Benin royal family, and international governments including Germany. It’s unlikely the LRT would contest objects directly returned to Benin’s king.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has bought armored vehicles from Turkey worth an estimated $75 million as part of ramped-up military spending to tip the balance in various conflicts, including against M23 rebels in eastern Congo. In 2023, Congo bought nine combat drones from China, some of which were delivered in May.
Military spending in Congo and South Sudan saw the largest percent increase globally, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, as both countries deal with resurgent conflicts. Spending in Congo rose by 105 percent last year to $794 million and in South Sudan by 78 percent, reaching $1.1 billion. Ethnic armed militias aligned to government forces and opposition factions have increased violence in South Sudan, a conflict also heightened by the spillover of civil war in neighboring Sudan.
FP’s Most Read This Week
Propaganda contests. In Africa Is a Country, Alex White revisits African current affairs newspapers of the 1960s, which featured crosswords and puzzles with hidden anti-colonial messaging. Crosswords in the African Review published by Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, largely featured questions about the campaign against British imperialism. White writes that foreign governments soon drew inspiration, attempting to engage African audiences with radio contests and puzzles heavy on Israeli and Russian propaganda.
Ethiopia’s gold rush. In Ethiopia’s Reporter newspaper, Ashenafi Endale investigates gold smuggling from northwestern Tigray to the UAE. Young locals, refugees, and Chinese nationals are working in illegal mines under the control of senior Tigrayan military officers, according to the report. Gold is allegedly trafficked via Eritrea or Somaliland before eventually reaching Dubai.
