Reconciliation, roads and raids; DR Congo’s new multi-thronged approach to reign in on 60 years of instability

The ascension to power of Felix Tshisekedi as President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has seen the country go into a new era, dotted with reconciliation, and a will to usher in development. The country; one of Africa’s poorest nations, yet endowed with vast deposits of minerals, has suffered six decades of war.

Tshisekedi, a former opposition contender for the presidency, took over the fractured country, faced with an Ebola outbreak and years of insurgency in the East as well as poor infrastructure and an ailing economy. At the time, the World Health Organisation had declared an international health emergency in the country. Hundreds of people had died while efforts to curb the spread of the disease in the country were hampered by insecurity.

The BBC reports that health workers suffered attacks from local residents who believed the myths and misinformation surrounding the disease.

The same area in the east of the country had been turned into a battlefield, pitting government forces against numerous outfits.

Tshisekedi’s first pronouncement was to deploy against these outfits, notably the Allied Democratic Forces, originally from Uganda but now wreaking havoc on the locals of DR Congo. In his own admission, the President had visited the area as he campaigned and as he told the BBC he was devastated by the condition of the people in that area. “I made a commitment at that time to do everything I could to bring peace.”

He ordered the army to create a command base in Beni, the city at the centre of the ADF attacks in fulfilment of his pledge made as he took the oath of presidency, to build a strong Congo with development, peace and security as the pillars. The army gained ground against the ADF but in 2019, the militia intensified revenge attacks, killing hundreds of civilians.

Tshisekedi was not blind to the need to tap the country’s neighbours for solutions to the internal conflicts. The new government in Kinshasa devised an outward-looking regional policy, the leader visited all the 9 countries surrounding the vast DRC, including the five members of the East African Community; Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan. He went a step further applying for the DR Congo to be admitted to the EAC regional bloc. Speaking of the Kinshasa government’s new foreign policy, Tshisekedi has stated; “We are committed to change. We are discussing economic integration, peace between our peoples and at our borders.”

On one of his visits, President Tshisekedi signed a Memorandum of Understanding with his counterpart in Uganda, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, to build roads from Uganda into the DR Congo, which roads would enhance trade and security in the two countries. Besides the ADF, many other small armed groups are active in the region, with some being involved in the illegal trade of minerals. The groups carry out attacks on civilians using little more than machetes, to cause mayhem. Fighters have taken advantage of the poor connectivity to set up base in the country and launch attacks, some spreading as far as the neighbouring, Rwanda and Uganda.

Also, while Mr Tshisekedi’s new government has managed to vaccinate more than 1 million children across the country, a lot more could have been done for the Congolese had access been better.  The BBC has reported that severity of both the measles and Ebola outbreaks are evidence of profound structural problems.

“With very little means [we started] building schools, restoring hospitals, roads, bridges [and] setting up ferries to facilitate river traffic,” the president is quoted to have told the BBC.

Uganda on its part has embraced the plan to build a road into the DRC as an opportunity to expand its trade portfolio in the region. Following the signing of the MoU between the two principals, Uganda’s cabinet approved the plans to build three roads inside the DRC.

Jointly funded by the two countries, the roads will run from Uganda’s border towns into DRC, one from Kasindi to Beni (80km) and another integrating the Beni-Butebo axis (54km). The third will stretch for 89 kilometres from the border town of Bunagana, through Rutshuru to the strategic city of Goma, the capital of the North Kivu Province in DRC.

Uganda’s Works and Transport Minister, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, has told media that both governments will contribute to the funding with DRC taking the biggest part.

The two leaders are not at it alone, Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and João Lourenço of Angola, in 2019 agreed in a meeting to work together on regional security and collaboration. The roads from Uganda into DRC will double trade volumes between the two countries in the short term, according to Gen Wamala. In 2018, Uganda exported goods to DR Congo worth $532 million, including an estimated $312 million in informal exports. Uganda’s top exports to DRC include cement, sugar, rice, beer, wheat flour, biscuits and beauty and make-up products while notable imports from DRC include iron, pearls, mineral fuels, wood, charcoal, spices, vegetable fats and oils, rubber among others.

Traders between the two countries have in the past complained about the high cost of doing business as a result of the poor road network inside the DRC. Insecurity in the region has also been a hindrance to smooth cross border trade between the two countries. The road is thus expected to speed up trade and increase transparency in the cross-border flows of goods.

The roads also provide an opportunity for Uganda to circumvent the closure of Rwanda’s border, a major trade route into the continent. The road to Goma, while longer than the existing route through Rwanda, would provide an alternative inlet into the lucrative Congo market.

Uganda’s move to embrace the infrastructure deal is not unique to the Congo situation. The country has contributed to building roads in Kenya and in South Sudan, schools in Tanzania and Rwanda, and has made the crude-oil export pipeline through Tanzania a major tool of cooperation with Dar es Salaam. And these are all besides plans to build a standard gauge railway to extend a similar line from Naivasha in Kenya to Uganda and the border with Rwanda.

Plans to build the roads have not come without resistance. Uganda has over the last couple of weeks experienced a series of terror attacks, killing dozens of people in the capital Kampala. During a brief to the nation in November, President Museveni stated that criminal elements had turned the Eastern part of the DRC into a base, looting and enriching themselves from the vast minerals in the area. The plans therefore to build a road were seen by the elements as an intrusion into their otherwise lucrative insecurity. Mr Museveni blamed these elements for the attacks on Kampala, but declared that they had invited the Ugandan army onto themselves.

Indeed the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces took the invitation and after an agreement with Kinshasa, a joint force of the UPDF and the Congolese army raided rebel bases in Eastern DRC, rattling camps. Several arrests have been made and prisoners of the rebels freed, while the rebel commanders are hitherto unaccounted for.

Shortly after the raid, Uganda and the DRC governments launched the road construction works earlier this month, while the UPDF have also marched into the country, with both firearms and road construction equipment.

The BBC has reported that President Tshisekedi is also working to diffuse political tensions in his new government. It states that despite winning the presidency, Mr Tshisekedi has had to come to an accommodation with the coalition of his predecessor Joseph Kabila, which controls the majority of seats in parliament. Negotiations between the two parties took seven months before a consensus was found so that a government could be formed. Relations between the two parties have been tense over the past year with rival politicians exchanging verbal abuse and, in some cases, using physical violence. But there seems to be a determination to make it work. Since taking power, President Tshisekedi has created a political climate that is in contrast with the previous government. Political prisoners have been freed and key opposition figures, who were living in exile have returned to the country, where they are now playing a role without fear of violent repression.

The elephant in the room for the new government is how to tackle corruption which is deeply enshrined in the officials.