A rebel upsurge in Eastern Congo has led to a spectacular rise of tensions between the DRC and Rwanda.
The East African Community is faced with the challenge of bringing back peace between two of its members.

Since the end of 2021, hostilities have resumed between the rebels of the Movement of the 23 March (M23) and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). The M23 which was dissolved in 2013 after it was defeated by SADC troops under UN umbrella, started again the guerrilla fight, claiming that the Congolese authorities did not honour their commitments on the demobilisation of their fighters.

Congolese soldiers in North Kivu province. (Reuters)

According to the M23, some of its fighters wanted to be reintegrated in the FARDC with the same rank. Others asked for an amnesty. But the Congolese authorities classified the M23 as terrorists. Patrick Muyaya, the DRC government spokesman, says that the rebels were excluded from the Nairobi peace talks initiated by the Heads of State of the East African Community to find a lasting peace in the DRC which joined the EAC on the last 29 March.
Bertrand Bisimwa, the leader of one of the M23 factions, accused Kinshasa of choosing “the military option”, instead of implementing peace measures such as the rebels’ integration into the society.
In a communiqué released by end May 2022, the M23 also accused Congolese army officers to sabotage the peace process, in order to protect their own businesses.
It is an open secret that the permanence of conflict in North Kivu allows FARDC officers to resell fuel and weapons to anybody including to armed groups, or to exploit gold or coltan mines for their own profit.

According to the UN, the clashes between the M23 and the FARDC displaced at least 75,000 people.

On the 13 June, the M23 inflicted a major defeat to the FARDC when it took over the town of Bunagana at the Ugandan border. Indeed, 137 Congolese soldiers and 37 policemen crossed the border and surrendered to the Ugandan People Defence Force, after having fled in front of the enemy, reported military sources in Kampala. After the attack, the M23 started setting up its own administration in Bunagana, which created concern in the capital of North Kivu, Goma whose one million inhabitants fear that food shortages might occur, as a consequence of the fall of Bunagana. On the 20 June, the M23 rebels reopened the border and local people began to return home. But the toll is considerable. According to the UN, the clashes between the M23 and the FARDC displaced at least 75,000 people and more than 11,000 crossed the border into Uganda.

Rwanda accused and shelled
The Kinshasa government says that Rwanda is supporting the insurrection. As a result, the bilateral relations have deteriorated considerably. On the last 28 May, the DRC government suspended all Rwand’Air flights to protest against Kigali’s alleged support to the M23. But the Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta retorted immediately that the matter was a domestic Congolese problem since the M23 are Congolese citizens who have an issue with their own government.
The deterioration of the security situation in North Kivu is also reviving ethnic hatred across the DRC, where Congolese Tutsis say they do no longer feel safe. Civil society groups from other ethnic groups in North Kivu claim that the M23 “terrorists” are Rwandan Tutsis who are trying to disguise themselves as Congolese.

Rwanda flag on soldiers arm. 123RF.COM

By mid-June, in Kinshasa, politicians from Felix Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) were inciting to hatred against the Tutsis, reminding of the atmosphere prevailing in August 1998, after the rebellion of the Rwandan and Ugandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy had led to pogroms.
The members of a UDPS so-called “Special brigade” wearing brown shirts were filmed in the Kinshasa streets, armed with machetes searching vehicles for Rwandans. Reverends of revival churches, wearing military fatigues made speeches encouraging faithful to denounce the Tutsis. Some extra-judiciary executions were reported at Kalima, in the Maniema Province, where one alleged “Rwandan citizen” was burnt, according to a video posted from Kindu.
On the 16 June, the Goma-based think-tank Pole Institute reported that after the capture of Bunagana by the M23 rebels on the 13 June, the civil society of North Kivu organised a march of support to the FARDC in Goma. Accordingly, the demonstration turned into a pogrom against the Tutsis. Kinyarwanda speaking people, regardless of their citizenship, were attacked by the demonstrators who thew stones at them.  Tutsi shops were systematically looted.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi.

On the 17 June, President Tshisekedi urged his compatriots “to avoid the snare of xenophobia” but no sanctions against the perpetrators were decided. On the 21 June, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet condemned in a joint statement with the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Nderitu, the “escalation of hate speech and incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence throughout the country” By then, the UN had already identified eight cases of hate speech and incitement to violence.
The anti-Tutsi feeling is not recent in Eastern Congo. Part of the problem is that the presence of Tutsis and Hutus inside the DRC territory is a consequence of the arbitrary borders established at the Berlin Conference of 1885, by 12 European states, the Ottoman Empire and United States. Indeed, the delineation of the borders of  King Leopold II’s Congo Free State with the German protectorate of Ruanda-Urundi, cut inside the original kingdom of Rwanda which included the territories of Masisi and Rutshuru, which now belong to the DRC.
Therefore, qualifying Hutus or Tutsis Congolese, born in these areas as foreigners is inaccurate.

Rwandan accusations
But Rwanda and its own grievances. While Kinshasa accuses Kigali of interference, on the 9 November 2021, the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) denied that it was supporting activities of the M23. Rwanda also accused the FARDC of supporting remnants of the 1994 genocidaire army, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) in North Kivu.

Moreover, on the 11 June 2022, Rwanda reported shelling in Gasizi village in the Musanze District by the FARDC, while the Congolese military claimed that the RDF had sent 500 Special Forces in disguise into Congolese territory. But John Ruku-Rwabyoma, member of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, blames the UN Peacekeeping force in the DRC , MONUSCO and the FARDC for being
“in bed” with the FDLR.

 A regional force to bring back peace in Eastern Congo
On the 19 June, President Tshisekedi called upon the international community to condemn the “invasion” of the DRC territory and to put pressure on Rwanda, in order to obtain the withdrawal of the RDF from the Congolese territory. Both countries don’t speak to each other anymore since a couple of months. They have instead communicated through mediators like President João Lourenço of Angola, chairman of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), and Congo-Brazzaville’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
On the 22 June, the Congolese government spokesman declared that “Rwanda was at war with the DRC” and that Kinshasa was about to break its diplomatic ties with its neighbour. But on the 24 June, President Tshisekedi said that the diplomatic path was ideal and preferred option to instore a lasting peace in Eastern DRC.

Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta.

The dispute involving two EAC members, prompted its chairman, the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta to convene a regional summit in Nairobi on the 20 June 2022. The heads of state adopted a Concept of Operations, a Status of the Forces Agreement and Rules of Engagement to facilitate the operationalization of a Regional Force which should, in cooperation with the Congolese military and administrative, stabilize and secure the peace there. It should also cooperate in implementing the disarmament and demobilization of the armed groups. The final communiqué also called for an immediate ceasefire.
The EAC summit agreed that participation in the political processes of the DRC, fate of combatants during reintegration of foreign armed groups are critical issues that require urgent and durable solutions. The heads of state also emphasized that hatred speech and threats of genocide must stop. But so far there has been still a disagreement on the composition of the force. Kinshasa wanted it to be under Kenyan command and excluding Rwandan Defence Force troops. But the communiqué did not mention such demand.
Meanwhile, one of the consequences of the deterioration of the security situation in Eastern Congo is that according to Jérôme Bonso, the chairman of the Congolese National League for Free and Transparent Electins (Linelit), it will be difficult to organise on time the forthcoming presidential and parliament elections, scheduled for end 2023. Some observers believe that the tensions with Rwanda might be used by the pro-Tshisekedi side as an excuse to remain in power beyond the end of the presidential term.

François Misser

Censorship, information regulation, isolation from the outside world. These are the new ways in which digital authoritarianism is exercised by various African governments.

The causes and effects of these forms of authoritarianism are indicated by the World Press Freedom Index, released by Reporters Without Borders, and a work by Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition. One of the worst situations concerns Eritrea, where the freedom to express one’s opinions is reduced to almost zero. President Isaias Afwerki’s regime does not contemplate an independent and critical press.
Equally complex situations prevail in the Sahel and in all those countries that have suffered coups d’etat or where armed conflicts are under way in recent months. We refer in particular to Sudan and Ethiopia. In Tigray – an area of ​​Ethiopian conflict between the Popular Liberation Front and the federal government – from 11 April 2020, citizens, if they have the means, are denied access to the Internet while phone calls and text messages work intermittently. These are the so-called ‘targeted closures’ to silence a specific population, further marginalizing already vulnerable communities.

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But it is the position of Ghana, a country considered among the most respectful of freedom of the press and of opinion, which makes us understand how quickly these freedoms are deteriorating. Accra has slipped down 30 places on the World Press Freedom Index. This is a foregone conclusion given the pressing threats to investigative journalists and considering that a third of the media – from radio, to TV, to print media – are owned by politicians or entrepreneurs connected to one of the major parties.
According to the report ‘The return of digital authoritarianism to the African continent’, in 2021, there were 19 network closures in 12 countries, three more nations than the previous year.

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Governments have increasingly resorted to it, for example, in the course of protests and political unrest. This has happened in Burkina Faso, Chad, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Niger, DR Congo, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia.
Closures are either total or aimed at social platforms. Disruption of the Net is used as a tool not only to counter and disrupt protests but also to hide human rights violations commonly linked to the repression of protesters by the security forces, particularly in countries with authoritarian regimes or weak democracies. In some cases, even access to virtual private networks (VPNs) has been successfully blocked to prevent bypassing censorship.
In this case, censoring governments have become smart and are testing and employing more and more techniques to hinder the detection and avoidance of their blocks.

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Another situation in which the internet shutdown is resorted to is that of elections. ‘A disaster for democracy’, is how the #KeepItOn coalition defined this abuse. Citizens of Chad, DR Congo, Niger, Uganda, and Zambia are among those who have suffered the most from this.
The official motivations, which stand out for their vagueness, range from reasons of ‘public security’ to ‘national defence’ to the need to control ‘unrest and anarchy’.However, a positive development should be noted on this front: countries such as Benin and Gambia, which had previously closed the internet during major national events, maintained access during the 2021 elections.

Net closed during exams
The censorship of governments is also seen on the occasion of school exams. The stated objective is to prevent cheating during sessions. To show the damage, it is sufficient to mention the Algerian case: in June of last year the authorities shut down the internet between 8 and 12 while 731,000 students were taking the state exams. Outages continue throughout the day, alternating between full blackouts during rehearsals and throttling (slowing down of connection capacity).

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Millions of people pay the consequences, especially those who use the internet and social media as work tools. In 2020 alone (when the practice was already consolidated) the country lost about 388 million dollars due to Internet blocking during the exams. Blockages which, when they occur in areas at the centre of conflicts, also have dramatic consequences at the humanitarian level, as often denounced by UN bodies.
Lack of communication also means difficulties in organizing the sending of aid and its effective distribution. But if despotic and authoritarian regimes have learned to manage dissent, getting their hands less dirty, civil society and human rights organizations have also been organizing for some time to combat these abuses on a legal level and to bring individual cases to court. Their aim is to establish legal precedents and build jurisprudence against this form of censorship. A small and recent victory in Zambia concerns the agreement with Telecom which will have to inform users of the reasons for any internet outage at least 36 hours before it takes place. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Antonella Stipoli

Adopt a common political space strategy. Develop a constellation of satellites ‘made in Africa’ capable of guaranteeing independence in collecting data. Create a system of space policy by creating a system of governance. These are some of the goals of the African Union
in the field of space.

The advance of the technological revolution, whose progress was helped by the Covid 19 pandemic, is significantly affecting the internal and international balances of states. Great strides have also been made in the field of aerospace, to the point of leading some scholars to affirm that this will be the era of great space expansion. This is true if we consider that the new great powers – above all China – are adequately equipped to conquer this new frontier which is now one of the fundamental factors of the economies of the most advanced nations: proof of this is
growing financial investment. Even in the war in Ukraine, space infrastructures are playing an important role by enabling the Ukrainians to hinder the Russian advance thanks to their capillary observation through satellites of the crisis territories on which the battalions move as well as their strategic infrastructure.

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The development of activities related to the space sector is also having a positive impact by generating a new economy. In this regard, we see effects related to satellite navigation, or the famous GPS (today we also have Galileo and GLONASS), which is becoming one of the indisputable assets of the superpowers aiming to have a satellite constellation linked to navigation and observation of the Earth. It is clear that in this new development process, the effects of which we may equate to those produced by the industrial revolution, the countries that will employ more resources in the innovation sectors will play a leading role in future geo-economic and geopolitical scenarios.
Space science is also extensively contributing to the realization of sustainable development processes. In this regard, we have only to consider the benefits that derive from it in terms of resource management from Earth observation through the acquisition of data relating to chemical and biological composition.

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Within this context, the African Union (AU) also intended to carve out its own space as early as 2015 when the 2063 Agenda was adopted. This is a document that, in tracing the strategic framework for the continent over future years, through initiatives in the field of economic development, political integration (we are talking about the creation of a federation or confederation of African states), the improvement of justice and democracy, also highlighted ambitions in the space sector.
This sector, in fact, could represent for Africa a useful development flywheel capable of responding to the needs of the continent, as well as encouraging technological innovation processes useful for guaranteeing a series of services whose access is still denied to a large percentage of the African population.
Indeed, the actions implemented in the space sector began to take their first steps in 2013 when the AU Commission assembled a group of experts whose purpose was to elaborate a strategy capable of creating a structure for the development and the operation of initiatives in this area but, above all, to build a long-term vision, within which to allow the public sector to dialogue with the private sector. There was already a consolidated awareness of the importance of space for achieving socio-economic objectives, managing crises resulting from natural disasters, monitoring climate change, marine activities and resources, conflicts, the spread of diseases and much more. This awareness constituted a solid basis for the conclusion of the first phase of the process which resulted in the adoption of the African space strategy and policy, presented in January 2016, whose main objective was to create a perimeter of rules that, in addition to ensuring the promotion of the agenda, would ensure that Africa aligns itself with international treaties.

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This is also important given the fact that, in the space sector, in addition to the principle of competition between powers, that of cooperation also applies. We could, in fact, argue that space by its very nature is cooperation and competition. It is cooperation because it is right that certain processes of a scientific nature are developed in synergy; while it is competition because the economic dimension is involved.
Among the main objectives indicated in the strategic agenda of the African Union is the promotion of intra-continental partnerships, the development of a considerable African space industry and the development of a constellation of ‘made in Africa’ ​​satellites useful for guaranteeing its own independence in the data collection. In addition, work is under way on the creation of a space policy implementation system through the creation of a system of governance. However, the achievement of this objective is not immediate both due to lack of funds and the institutional complexities due to the instability of some countries and the difficulties associated with the implementation of Commission communications at the national level and the creation of a coordination structure capable of operating both vertically and horizontally.

Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)

To date, it is reported that over 20 countries have reached remarkable levels in the development of space programs and 8 of these have launched about 40 satellites into orbit. But, certainly, the greatest of the achievements to date is represented by the launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 13, 2022, of the first satellite constellation, of three nanosatellites, entirely designed and developed in Africa at Cape Peninsula University of Technology on a SpaceX vector. This is a truly remarkable result which places the research sector already on an advanced level. This constellation, nicknamed MDASat (Marine Domain Awareness), will have the task of collecting data to monitor the portion of the sea corresponding to the exclusive economic zone and so strengthen the protection of South Africa’s marine resources. The milestone reached by South Africa has its roots in the path that the country has followed since the 1950s, attaining important milestones over the course of these decades, including the construction of the first satellite in the early 1990s and the establishment, in 1995, of the South African Council for Space Affairs (SACSA) whose goal is the implementation of the South African space policy.
These signals clearly indicate the progress that the continent is making in the space sector, also due to the efforts made by the African Union. Such progress, if governed and directed well, could produce ground-breaking effects, and lead the continent towards sustainable development by activating important transformations of which the first beneficiaries could be precisely the countries currently living in a considerable state of poverty. (Open Photo: 123rf.com)

Filippo Romeo