Congolese despot Félix Tshisekedi is on track to become the most ridiculous president in the history of our Congo. As he prepares to fly to Washington to sign an economic deal with Rwanda and the U.S., he continues misleading Congolese, setting the stage for the mockery that follows every bombastic speech he makes before inevitably backing down.
Tshisekedi prefers loud confusion because the truth is embarrassing.
He swore he would never go to Washington as long as Rwandan troops (which he cannot locate anywhere on Congolese soil) had not withdrawn. The chest thumping barely lasted two weeks. Now he is packing his bags, to rush over to Washington.
To try to save face, he shifted the goalposts, declaring that whatever he signs in the U.S., he would never allow the ARC (the armed wing of the AFC M23 movement) “to be integrated into the FARDC.” But the comment was unnecessary and off topic.
First, because he made it while discussing a completely separate process focused on neutralizing the genocidal FDLR – the very group he recruited in his war against M23. And more importantly because the revolutionaries have never shown the slightest interest in joining his ragtag army, made up of bandits and rapists who prey on defenseless civilians but flee at the first sign of real fighting.
In fact, the freedom fighters are saying something entirely different: that in the federal Congo to come, the ARC will serve as the regional force for Kivu, and that FARDC elements could be integrated on a case by case basis.
Before that, Tshisekedi went to Paris to beg French President Emmanuel Macron to help him get back control of the Goma airport. Armed with Macron’s (imaginary) moral support, he came back deluding himself that he would force the revolutionaries’ hand, only to discover they were not intimidated at all. That topic has now vanished as well.
Make no mistake: the media noise is pure deflection. Tshisekedi is diverting public attention from two facts: he is doing exactly what he swore he would never do, and he is failing to deliver what he promised.
When the revolutionaries liberated Goma and Bukavu, he claimed he was preparing a vigorous response. It never came. Instead, he keeps losing territory. He said negotiating with the revolutionaries was a red line he would never cross. Now he proudly announces he is in Doha crossing that very line.
So when he insists he will never concede anything regarding the governance of the liberated territories, one might as well assume he already has.
What Tshisekedi says he will not do, he ends up doing. What he promises to do, he fails to achieve. Hence the constant mockery. All of it self-inflicted.