DRC: UN experts point out Kinshasa’s dangerous connections
Tensions in the east but also at the gates of Kinshasa have perhaps never been so exacerbated and the actors in the crisis so numerous.
In just over 150 pages! The panel of United Nations experts maps the main hot spots in the DRC. A study which was carried out until the beginning of November, a few weeks before the official start of the electoral campaign for the presidential election and different legislative levels but also a few weeks before the launch of the politico-military platform of the Congo River Alliance of Corneille Nangaa, the former boss of the Ceni who does not limit his struggle to eastern Congo but threatens to overthrow the power of President Tshisekedi.
This The report was transmitted on 20 November 2023 to the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which considered it on 7 December 2023. He was made public on January 3.
The observation, detailed in well-documented annexes, points in particular to the mobilization by Kinshasa of different groups or military militias, sometimes moved from one end of the country to the other, in an attempt to increase the numbers having to face the men of the M23 supported by the Rwandan army but also by some Congolese militias such as the Zaire group;
The report thus points to the mobilization (sometimes following arrests), the training and the sending of more than 1,000 men from the former Bandundu to North Kivu. Men drawn from the ranks of the Mabondo forces, close to the Teke ethnic group who are confronting the Yaka in Mai-Ndombe.
A conflict which left at least several hundred dead and which largely left the borders of the Mai-Ndombe province to spread, notably to Kwango, Kongo-Central and as far as Maluku, in the province of Kinshasa.
These Mabondo fighters sent to the Eastern Front joined a motley group. There, according to United Nations experts, there are men from the Burundian army who act under the uniform of the Congolese army, as well as numerous Congolese militias united under the name wazalendo (who hope to find a little of legitimacy by joining this “patriotic” movement and who also sometimes wear the uniforms of the regular Congolese army), or Western mercenaries, without forgetting members of the Rwandan FDLR.
In this context, the group of experts calls on the Congolese government to immediately end the use of armed groups as proxies and their supply of weapons.
Goma massacre and gold trafficking
UN experts also confirmed thatRepublican Guard special forces (who report directly to the head of state) killed more than 57 unarmed protesters in Goma, following rumors that they had been infiltrated by the M23.
Furthermore, the report also points outthe company Primera Gold DRC Who continued to boost official gold exports from the Democratic Republic of Congo. But experts point out that the Primera Gold company has “ seriously failed in its duty of precaution, particularly with regard to the origin of the gold marketed.” They add that ” vsThe contempt of the mining authorities could have consequences on the fight against gold smuggling, which has continued, in particular thanks to pre-financing linked to money laundering by individuals and regional or international networks.