Tshisekedi under pressure after rebels seize Goma, begin southward march

Amid the pressure and threats, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi addressed the nation at midnight on Wednesday, vowing to take the fight to the invaders.

Photo credit: File| Nation Media Group

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi this week put up a brave face despite mounting pressure from within and abroad, after M23 rebels violently seized control of North Kivu province and started a march southward to Bukavu in neighbouring South Kivu.

As panic and despondency reigned across the country following reports of the fall of Goma, North Kivu’s capital and commercial hub, Kinshasa residents rioted in support of government forces being vanquished by the rebel force. The protests turned violent and businesses and foreign embassies were attacked and looted.

Rioters attacked the Kenyan embassy in Kinshasa on Tuesday morning, damaging the building and burning property, including vehicles. They also attacked the embassies of Uganda, South Africa, France, Belgium and the US accusing them of taking sides in the raging conflict in eastern Congo.

Kenya protested the “unwarranted attacks, looting, and destruction of property” and demanded compensation from Kinshasa.

The other countries protested too, and Washington advised its citizens to leave the country when they deem it safe to go. Even as the Kinshasa authorities went out to quell the riots, the physical and diplomatic damage will take a long time to repair.

Add that to President Tshisekedi’s snub of the (virtual) extraordinary heads of state summit that the East African Community (EAC) chair William Ruto had called to discuss the crisis, but flew down to Southern Africa to attend similar engagements organised by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

His peers felt slighted, and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, whom Kinshasa accuses of backing the M23, did not mince words, indicating that the problem with Congo is simply and squarely Tshisekedi.

"Mr Chairman, your excellencies… I want us, whatever we are saying, and whatever we intend to do, we capture the context rightly and then proceed based on that, and maybe we can get somewhere. Otherwise, if we keep saying good things to each other, being nice, and then each one fulfilling their own interests other than the common interests we have as East Africans, then I don’t see how we are going to contribute effectively to finding a solution,” the Rwandan leader said.

“Even if all of us were doing everything right, nothing is going to come out of it, until those mainly concerned are also part of it, participating and contributing to the success of the process through which they are getting the support.”

In the past fortnight, President Kagame has been a thorn in Tshisekedi’s flesh, telling a diplomats’ luncheon in Kigali on January 16, that the Congolese leader lacked legitimacy as he had “not been elected” into office, among other issues.

That speech seemed to set the tone for the events of the past week, as M23 got on a march to Goma, allegedly backed by Rwandan military, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded and displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Members of the M23 rebel group supervise potential Congolese recruits for the rebel group before they are taken to training centres, during clashes between M23 rebels and the army in Goma, North Kivu province, eastern DRC on January 30, 2025. 

Photo credit: Reuters

Tshisekedi has recently shown little interest in EAC matters. Indeed, he skipped the last heads of state Summit in Arusha late last year without apology.

The Congolese leader has proved an unwilling partner in the bloc he led his country into in 2022, with his officials often expressing disappointment that their expectations remained largely unfulfilled, especially in enforcing peace in the volatile east.

“When we joined the EAC it was to connect our country with the region. The regional bloc was committed to peacebuilding but, unfortunately, we have little progress,” Government Spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in 2023, when Kinshasa started slackening in matters EAC integration.

President Kagame alleged that Tshisekedi had wanted the EAC to help the likes of FDLR to vanquish Kinyarwanda-speaking communities and when he did not get that he expelled the East African Community Regional Force and invited SADC.

“They have displaced people, they have killed people, they have persecuted them on a daily basis for who they are. We have refugees who have been here for the last 20-plus years, just dislocated from Congo and sent to Rwanda because they say these are ethnic Tutsis, therefore, they belong to Rwanda, they don’t belong there. We have Monusco, we have SamiDRC, we have mercenaries, we have Burundi, we have FDLR that has joined them, and everybody is there watching this thing and we pretend like we don’t understand what has been going on for all these years? And then when things like these of last week erupted we behave like we are surprised, we are concerned about humanitarian crisis. Isn’t persecuting people and killing people and displacing them part of that humanitarian concern? As East Africans we sit here and then do what about it?”

In the EAC, Congo was supposed to take the rotational chair of the Summit last year but, with Tshisekedi being a no-show, and the next in line, Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, asking to skip till she is done with this year’s election, it was turned to President Ruto.

The partners pointed out DRC’s lack of commitment to the community and some even suggested sanctions on partners who breach provisions of the EAC Treaty.

When President Ruto announced the emergency meeting on Sunday, he said that both protagonists in the conflict, Tshisekedi and Kagame, had assured him of their attendance, only for Tshisekedi to pull a fast one, citing clashing engagements.

The DRC has been in default on payment of mandatory contributions to the EAC budget. As at November 2024, Kinshasa owed the bloc over $20 million. Since joining the EAC, DRC has only paid $1 million towards the regional budget.

The snubbing of the Ruto meeting lent credence to the belief among Congolese that Kenya – and President Ruto – are pro-Rwanda in the diplomatic falling-out.

Nairobi does not have a substantive ambassador in Kinshasa, as Col Shem Amadi, appointed last year, has never presented his papers amid somewhat tense diplomatic relations between the two capitals, incidentally partly blamed on the 2023 launch of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), which is affiliated to the M23.

The Congo crisis is a banana skin for President Ruto in his quest for peace. He has, since his days as Deputy President, made gaffes that rubbed Congolese the wrong way. In 2022, he angered the Congo’s public after deriding their alleged inability to rear cows, and their penchant to wear high-waist trousers -- depicted in music videos. It took an official apology from Kenya’s then Ambassador to Kinshasa Dr George Masafu to appease them.

Conspiracy theory

But the Congolese have never forgotten that. As President, he appointed Col Amadi to replace Dr Masafu but President Tshisekedi has kept the ambassador waiting on the queue, to present credentials since November 2023, so the embassy has been without a head for more than a year.

That is a paradox, especially since the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to be Kenya’s most important trading partner in recent years.

Kinshasa’s refusal to receive the papers of the Kenyan envoy can be seen as more of a revenge than about Amadi’s credentials. Kinshasa had demanded that Kenya deport political leaders affiliated to the M23/AFC.

Nairobi declined, even after they held a press conference in Nairobi and promised to march on Kinshasa. At the time, Ruto cited freedom of speech. Kinshasa has since sentenced some of the AFC leaders to death, including its President Corneille Nangaa, in absentia.

In contrast, DRC has accredited ambassadors from Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan and Somalia, signalling warm relations with the four peers.

Dr Masafu, the former ambassador to DRC, traces the genesis of the Tshisekedi-Ruto friction to the launch of the AFC in Nairobi a month to the Congolese general election of 2023.

“The conspiracy theory by the Congolese was that Kenya was teaming up with this opposition to overthrow their President, which is not true,” Dr Masafu said. “Kenya made it clear that the rebels were not invited by the government, nor were they facilitated by Kenya. But this entirely fell on deaf ears.”

“What the Congolese do not understand is that Kenya and the DRC as EAC partner states, are visa-free and can admit each other ‘snationals without any restrictions. The M23 did not require clearance to be in Kenya.”

Despite President Ruto dispatching Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi to Kinshasa, Kenya’s ambassador has never been accredited.

“At political level, we have had personality clashes between the two leaders but, when you come at the economical level, Kenya is participating robustly. We have not closed the border with the DRC, but at the diplomatic level we have a challenge,” Dr Masafu said.

Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was instrumental in pushing Tshisekedi to join the EAC and Dr Ruto’s 2022 presidential win did not sit well with Kinshasa, which preferred Mr Kenyatta’s candidate, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Yet it is not just Nairobi that has been fighting off allegations of supporting the M23. Last year, Uganda faced similar accusations. In Parliament this week, the Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi raised concerns that Uganda's ambassador to DRC has not been accredited for nearly four years.

"The lack of an accredited Ugandan ambassador for nearly four years is troubling. It suggests a strained relationship, especially considering Uganda’s past actions in the DRC,” the MP said.

“There is a brewing conflict in eastern DRC, and Uganda, being a neighbouring country, must be concerned about the safety of its nationals in the region.”

President Yoweri Museveni, however, has maintained silence over the DRC this year, only expressing willingness to participate in regional peace talks to end the hostilities, through his Minister of State for Regional Affairs John Mulimba.

Burundi's military has been involved in supporting Congolese operations against the insurgency.

These intersecting regional interests raise concerns about the conflict spreading across the Great Lakes region

At Wednesday night’s summit, Dr Ruto said he was seeking out SADC leaders in efforts to convene an EAC-SADC summit to discuss the way forward. He was mandated to “consult with the chairperson of SADC on the urgent convening of the same in the next few days.”

As Dr Ruto pushes for a diplomatic resolution, questions remain over Tshisekedi’s willingness to play along, and Kagame’s willingness to climb down from the aggressive stance he has taken.

The Rwandan leader insists that to resolve the crisis, the M23, whom Kinshasa has tagged terrorists and refused to dialogue with, must participate in the peace process.

According to President Kagame, the fighting has claimed DRC’s own citizens.

Meanwhile in Goma, the rebels have settled in with AFC/M23 President Nangaa declaring that his men are going to continue the fight until they pacify the DRC.

"We will continue the march of liberation all the way to Kinshasa," he told a press conference in Goma on Thursday. “We will continue fighting for as long as the issues for which we have been fighting have not been resolved.”

He claimed that the capture Goma was to respond to “cries of distress from the people.”

Penultimate offensive

“The only agenda of the AFC/M23 is a prosperous, dignified DR Congo, where people are living and enjoying its territorial sovereignty,” he said.

The rebels, backed by Rwanda, launched the penultimate offensive on Goma on January 26, using drones, armoured vehicles, elite troops, and overrunning government forces.

Rwandan security officers escort members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), who surrendered in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, following fighting between M23 rebels and the FARDC, in Gisenyi, Rwanda on January 27, 2025.

Photo credit: Reuters

European mercenaries, local militia Wazalendo, FDLR, Burundian soldiers, who were fighting alongside FARDC were no match. The European mercenaries, the majority Romanian, were allowed safe passage into Rwanda to catch flights home while some FARDC troops surrendered to the Rwandan military.

Amid the pressure and threats, Tshisekedi addressed the nation at midnight on Wednesday, vowing to take the war to the invaders.

He conceded his army's “setback” but said "a vigorous and coordinated attack is underway to repel the rebels and the Rwandan army, whose actions and presence on Congolese soil are an affront to the history and dignity of our people."

The head of state announced that to coordinate operations in North Kivu, he had appointed Major-General Evariste Somo Kakule to the post of Governor, replacing Major-General Peter Cirimwami, who was killed in fighting a week before.

He is banking on the SADC and Burundian forces to hold off the rebels. And this seemed to work on Thursday and Friday.

M23's offensive along the western shores of Lake Kivu was checked, South Kivu's governor Jean Jacques Purusi said. A force of around 1,500, comprising the army, local militias and Burundians deployed to defend the town of Nyabibwe on the road to Bukavu, a person with direct knowledge of the situation on the ground told Reuters, declining to be identified for security reasons.

For the Congolese head of state, the DRC's preferred option is a diplomatic settlement of the conflict as part of the Luanda peace process.

"We favour the path of dialogue, but always with lucidity, while remaining firmly resolved to defend our sovereignty by any means necessary," he said. He said that his country was fully committed to the Luanda process "despite the obstacles". Tshisekedi said he believed in peace through diplomatic means, but warned that the DRC "will not back down or give in".

Once again, the Congolese head of state denounced Rwanda's support for M23 and the illegal exploitation of the DRC's natural resources.

"These acts are leading straight to an escalation with unforeseeable consequences, endangering the entire Great Lakes region," he said.

He accused the African Union and the international community of "passivity borders on complicity"before warning: "But be sure of one thing, the DRC will not allow itself to be humiliated or crushed. We will fight and we will triumph."

There are growing international calls for peace talks to end the escalation of violence.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to both Tshisekedi and Ruto over urgent need for a ceasefire and resumption of peace talks initiated by Angola.

Rubio condemned the M23 attack.

“Secretary Rubio and President Tshisekedi agreed on the importance of advancing the Luanda Process and Angolan President João Lourenço’s efforts to restart talks between the DRC and Rwanda as soon as possible.”

France has also taken interest in the peace process and its Foreign Affairs minister Jean-Noël Barrot visited Kinshasa and Kigali on Thursday and Friday.

The latest crisis comes as DRC opposition has accused Tshisekedi of trying to change the constitution to allow himself to stay in power past his mandate.

Tshisekedi himself has made it clear that the DRC needs a constitution “worthy of the country.” The President has been telling audiences that he will set up a commission to reflect on, and draft a new constitution.

“I'm going to appoint a national commission, which will include people from all disciplines, but who will be Congolese, to reflect and give us a constitution that will be adapted to our realities,” he said in Kisangani last year.

For the Congolese head of state, the current constitution does not reflect Congolese nationalism.

“This constitution is no good. It was drafted abroad, by foreigners,” he said.

Among those opposing the move is former President Joseph Kabila and opposition leaders.

Whether he uses the ongoing crisis to push through the law changes remains to be seen, if he survives the building storm.