It’s Not Military Force but an End to Impunity that Can Bring Peace to the Congo

Peoples Dispatch Kambale Musavuli talks about the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the discovery of mass graves in North Kivu, in Eastern DRC. He also explains why the solutions proposed by the East African Community do not have much of a chance of working Kambale Musavuli of the Center for Research…

DRC: As Another Ceasefire Fails, What Lies Ahead for the Congolese People?

Tanupriya Singh M23 fighters head towards the provincial capital of Goma in the eastern part of the DRC. (Photo: Sylvain Liechti / MONUSCO) During a visit to the DRC last week, the UN Security Council stated that it “no longer needed to be demonstrated” that Rwanda was backing the M23. The rebel group has continued…

What Will it Take to Stop the Rebel Violence in DR Congo?

Despite multiple agreements and negotiations calling for the rebel group M23 to stop their hostilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the group has continued to be on the offensive. Massive amounts of casualties and large scale displacements have been caused as a result of the group’s actions. The group is active primarily in the…

Why are the Congolese in DRC Protesting Macron’s Visit?

Late evening on March 3rd, French president Emmanuel Macron arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On March 1st, hundreds had gathered outside the French embassy in Kinshasa against his arrival, saying Macron is an assassin and calling for him to go back. His visit also comes at a time of rising anti-French sentiment in…

Fresh Protests Break Out in Congo against UN and East African Forces

Tanupriya Singh UN peacekeepers near Goma, 2012. (Photo: MONUSCO) At least eight people were killed by UN forces in the North Kivu province on February 7. The DRC is witnessing renewed protests against the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) and the East African Community (EAC) regional forces Anger Grows Over M23 Advance At least eight civilians…

‘The Cry is “Lumumba Lives”—His Ideas, His Principles’

Janine Jackson Janine Jackson interviewed Friends of the Congo’s Maurice Carney about the assassination of Patrice Lumumba for the January 20, 2023, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Janine Jackson:  CounterSpin listeners will have heard a number of tributes to Martin Luther King Jr. this past week—a few searching, many shallow. Importantly, the King holiday…

If Capitalism is to Be Fought, it Has to Be Fought in the DRC

Tanupriya Singh People internally displaced by conflict in North Kivu, March 2013. (Photo: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid/Flickr) “The day the Congo is in the hands of its people, the entire African continent will change. As long as Congo is kept unstable, with puppet leaders and in a dysfunctional state, Africa will not advance……

“After Two Decades of War, the Congolese People are Saying Enough is Enough”: M23 and War-Making in the Congo

Tanupriya Singh M23 fighters on the road towards Goma in 2013. Photo: MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti Peoples Dispatch spoke to Congolese activist and researcher Kambale Musavuli about the latest offensive of the M23 rebel group in the eastern part of the DRC and the broader history of proxy warfare in the region. On Monday, December 12, a…

If the US Told Rwanda and Uganda to Get Out of Congo, the War Would End

Ann Garrison Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Rwandan president Paul Kagame Rwanda and Uganda continue their plunder and destabilization of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as proxies of the United States. The European Union has sanctioned five members of different armed groups operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), including the spokesman…

Africa’s Next Great War

Evan Nachtrieb The international community’s limited attention span is laser-focused on jihadism in the Sahel and the imploding Horn of Africa. But interstate war is potentially brewing in the eastern DRC. It’s happening again. A Rwandan-backed rebel force threatens the Congolese provincial capital of Goma while foreign intervention is cobbled together to bail out the…

Canada Sets Up Embassy in Rwanda, Amidst Growing Mass Anti-Imperialist Movement in Neighbouring DRC

Christian Shingiro PCCO (Parti Communiste Congolais) in demonstration protesting rebel groups in Eastern Congo. Image courtesy of: Boswa Isekombe Sylvere, general secretary of the PCCO and leader of the FUPC. The Canadian government set up an embassy in Rwanda this June, to combat Russian and Chinese influence in Africa, under the racist logic that African…

The Waters are Running Red in Africa’s Great Lakes Region – A War is Raging We Can No Longer Ignore

Vijay Prashad People are seen at a makeshift market in Bunagana, a border town in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Oct. 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Alain Uaykani) Resources like cobalt, copper, lithium, and the trees of the rainforest continue to be exploited by the rest of the world despite the carnage that has…

The French Factor in the Latest Phase of the Congolese Conflict

Andrew Korybko Security dilemma, resource, and ethnic reasons in that order are indeed largely responsible for the latest phase of the Congolese Conflict, but the unseen complex relationship between France and Rwanda might actually have played the most important role in catalyzing recent events. The latest phase of the long-running and still-unresolved Congolese Conflict threatens to escalate…

Glaring Western Hypocrisy on Human Rights in Africa: Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Ann Garrison The US and EU are complicit in the continued Rwandan and Ugandan incursions into the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as in their support of their TPLF proxies against Ethiopia. On October 31st, thousands of Congolese in Goma, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu Province, protested the war of aggression…

For Peace in the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda Must Be Brought to Justice

Last month, Uganda paid the first installment (USD 65 million) of USD 325 million in reparations to the Democratic Republic of the Congo following an order from the International Court of Justice. This is for the crimes committed by Uganda during its occupation of the Congo in the 90s. While this was a positive first…

Survivors Uncensored: Voices from Rwanda and the Rwandan Diaspora

Ann Garrison Most reporting on the Rwandan 1994 atrocities was false and driven by the Clinton administration’s need to hide its culpability. The book Survivors Uncensored allows Rwandans to tell their own story. Samantha Power, former UN Ambassador, National Security Advisor, current USAID Chief, and a principal in the decisions to bomb both Libya and Syria “to…

Rwanda and Uganda’s M23 Militia Reappears to Slaughter and Plunder in DRC: US Backs Rwanda and Uganda

Ann Garrison Rwanda and Uganda are again plundering the Congo. As always they do so with the backing of the U.S. Rwanda and Uganda’s M23 militia have returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), once again slaughtering Congolese people to plunder their resources. To understand this, we have to return to March 2013, after M23 had been…

Once Led by a Fierce Champion of Anti-Colonialism, Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo Has Been Recolonized by Western Capital

Owen Schalk Coltan mine, Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States does the heavy lifting, but Canada provides consistent behind-the-scenes support to enable the plunder of Congo and other nations in the Global South. On October 14, 2004, a group of ten armed men took control of the city of Kilwa in the eastern Katanga…