Felix Tshisekedi is not interested in peace. He is power-hungry. By launching offensives against AFC/M23-held territories, the Congolese president is deliberately perpetuating war for political ends, violating signed agreements, exploiting international silence, and dragging civilians through endless suffering.
It is time to call this what it is: a dangerous game of chaos to stay in office. And it must be stopped.
Tshisekedi’s coalition, made up of FARDC, FDLR, FDNB, and Wazalendo militias, continues to wage war killing scores civilians in the process. Most recently, this coalition violently bombarded villages in Chugi and Kinigi using a CH-4 combat drone.
Earlier, the same evil forces carried out deadly drone strikes on populated areas in Rumangabo and Rubaya.
Once again, the Tshisekedi regime appears determined to sabotage every opportunity for peace. This reckless military campaign has triggered yet another wave of displacement exarcebating the humanitarian catastrophe.
Clearly, war has increasingly become Tshisekedi’s political currency. At the beginning of May, during a press conference, he openly linked the future of elections to the conflict in eastern DRC.
“If we cannot end this war, unfortunately, we will not be able to hold the elections in 2028,” Tshisekedi said.
His actions are now making his intentions clearer. By undermining the peace process and fueling instability, Tshisekedi appears to be creating the very conditions that could justify postponing elections indefinitely. This comes at a time when he is already facing mounting pressure not to alter the constitution, a move seen as part of a gambit to remain in power.
Yet Tshisekedi had made commitments. In mid-April, during talks in Montreux, Switzerland, focused on advancing the Doha peace process, Kinshasa agreed to “refrain from any attack, destruction…” and pledged to facilitate life-saving humanitarian assistance for people in eastern DRC. Regrettably, the opposite has happened. Obviously, those agreements mean nothing to someone whose real objective is prolonging conflict to justify staying in power.
What is also astonishing is the silence of much of the international community. Despite repeated acts of belligerence by Tshisekedi and his regime and growing signs of their undemocratic intentions, many continue to look away while innocent civilians bear the consequences.
It is high time the Kinshasa regime be stopped from playing dangerous games of chaos that keep civilians in eastern DRC trapped in a cycle of endless suffering, all for one man’s ambitions.
