M23 “Refugees” in Rwanda Deployed to Border Area with DRC

Following confirmation that South Africa will be deploying troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a United Nations intervention force, there is a somber atmosphere within Banyamulenge families in Rwanda that some of their sons might deploy. Many of the M23 combatants from the Runiga/Ntaganda “faction” who had supposedly “fled” to Rwanda have just been moved to the DRC border area. They are all armed. We’ve been informed but have not yet confirmed that a small contingent has already reunited with Makenga in the DRC.

The past week has seen bellicose almost frantic rhetoric from the M23 about fighting the UN sanctioned South African intervention force. RPF propagandists and media moguls like Arthur Asiimwe have also been vehemently speaking against the intervention force, shamelessly throwing away their previous pretense that they do not support the M23 as it is a “purely Congolese affair”. The same arguments used against Rwanda about using the M23 as a proxy for meddling in the DRC for its minerals have hypocritically been brought up by the likes of Mr. Asiimwe and the larger RPF propaganda machinery at large in East African media, the diplomatic community and social media against South Africa. The sense of irony seems not to rub off on the RPF.

Behind this is a confrontation between the power cabal of South Africa centered around the ANC’s party bureaucracy and Rwanda’s RPF power cabal. South Africa’s mining interests have expanded well beyond its borders and the nation’s leadership has been seeking to assert control in countries as far as the Central African Republic where it recently lost troops. This has put it in direct confrontation with Rwanda’s RPF who until now enjoyed a significant mining monopoly in the DRC. RPF’s influence in DRC’s mining has the backing of the US and Western multinationals. China’s overinflated influence within the region has also posed a minor but notable business threat to US multinational interests in the region and South Africa has used such hind sight to strategically ally itself closer to China.

Friction between South Africa’s ANC and Rwanda’s RPF has a long history that goes back to the two Congo Wars. The ANC funds, supports and mentors the RNC (Rwanda National Congress). Founded as a sister party of the ANC, the RNC is based in South Africa and North America and is headed by high ranking ex-RPF officials like Kayumba Nyamwasa who had investments in the DRC before the fallout with Paul Kagame. South Africa has also been trying to expand the influence of the regional bloc of SADC (South African Development Community) which Tanzania, a member of EAC is also part of. Tanzania is infamous for being more active in SADC as opposed to its competition, the EAC’s COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) which has other members who are also in SADC. The overlap of membership between these two blocs has worked against COMESA in general as South Africa has pressured countries within SADC who are also part of COMESA to neglect their obligations to the latter.

There should be no illusions about ANC’s progressive posturing. Just like any capitalist oligarchs, they are using the working class and peasants to fight for their own selfish business interests. The betrayal and massacre of the Marikana miners is a case in point. Migrant workers have been scapegoated time and time again in South Africa for ANC’s neoliberal economic failures. The ANC like the RPF are nothing but capitalist cabals. The greed of both entities threatens to put the whole region into another massive bloody conflict and we, the common people, the poor, workers and peasants will be the ones who’ll suffer the brutal repercussions. The DRC once again is a plunder zone for not just local and regional capitalists but global capitalists too.  The time for us Africans to stop being pawns of mere business manoeuvres and machinations of Kagame and the RPF, Zuma, Ramaphosa and the ANC is now.

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