Congolese ruler Felix Tshisekedi and his cronies have come up yet with another false allegation, that “Ugandan and South Sudanese troops deployed under the East African Community Regional Forces are colluding with M23 Movement to loot DRC minerals” in Lubero territory, North Kivu Province.
According to what’s supposed to be a “confidential letter” now making rounds on social media platforms, an officer in the Congolese National Intelligence Agency- ANR wrote to the President arguing that “what’s being done by Ugandan and South Sudan is an act of balkanization”.
However such allegations are not new, by a failure of a regime that’s completely unequal to the task of solving Congolese problems. Ever since the regional forces were deployed in DRC to help bring peace in the conflict-torn Eastern Congo, the Tshisekedi regime has always wanted to divert the forces from their actual mandate into fighting the M23, something that the Force Commander Maj Gen Jeff Nyagah steadfastly refused in front of Tshisekedi.
Recently Uganda deployed 5,000 troops adding to South Sudan, Burundi and Kenyan troops under the umbrella of the EAC led peace process which gave the force a mandate to oversee the implementation of regional peace mechanisms. The resolutions include cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and withdrawal of M23 from occupied territories.
The deployment of EACRF has yielded immense positive results that saw a host of territories in the Eastern Congo returning to normalcy as regional troops work round the clock to create secure and peaceful environments. Recently, while in Kigali, Kenyan President William Ruto commended the EACRF work in what he termed as positive development in the quest for peace in Congo.
The Kinshasa regime continues to blackmail the EACRF with concocted accusations of “pillage of minerals and balkanization”; but the whole scheme is aimed at creating a vote of no confidence amongst the Congolese nationals and incite them against the forces to force their withdrawal from the Congolese soil. If this succeeds, will give a leeway to Tshisekedi and his allied armed terrorists groups to wreak terror on innocent Congolese and backwards the entire process to pacify the Eastern Congo. Regional leaders should closely monitor Kinshasa’s regime behavior to preserve some peace and quiet that Congolese have started enjoying.
Tshisekedi’s goose is cooked; the EACRF is there to stay and shall stay the course until peace prevails in the Eastern DRC; no amount of blackmail will deter the force from executing its mandate.