Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has finally done what should have been obvious from the start as he’s pulling his troops out of eastern DRC.
Malawi was part of the SADC military mission backing Felix Tshisekedi’s forces against the M23, but now Chakwera has decided enough is enough.
By withdrawing, Chakwera is essentially rejecting Tshisekedi’s belligerent approach to dealing with what is, at its core, an internal Congolese issue. It’s a bold and commendable move, one that should serve as a wake-up call to other regional leaders still blindly clinging to Tshisekedi’s warpath.
Take South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, for instance. He’s still hell-bent on sending troops into eastern DRC, desperately wanting to continually control DRC minerals. Then there’s Burundi’s Evariste Ndayishimiye, practically a Tshisekedi puppet, who has already deployed his forces to fight in this senseless war.
There’s a Swahili proverb that says, “When brothers quarrel, you take a hoe and dig.” In other words, when the Tshisekedi regime and M23 fight, outsiders are better off focusing on their own work instead of getting involved.
The conflict in eastern DRC is a Congolese matter that requires Congolese solutions, not foreign military interventions that only escalate the bloodshed.
Chakwera has set the right example. The question is, will others have the wisdom to emulate?