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Akron, PA
Struggling with war and peace in Congo


Rick Derksen was a missionary with the General Conference Mennonite Commission on Overseas Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for 22 years. He now lives in Lancaster, Pa. Recently, he wrote for the Mennonite Central Committee Peace Office Newsletter.

The massive response of Western governments, media and non-government organizations to the Kosovo crisis has not gone unnoticed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the second war in three years continues to rain death and destruction in spite of a recently signed cease-fire.

Why has there been little attention in the media on the African conflict? No doubt the answer has to do with strategic interest by NATO, the end of the cold war, racism and many other factors. The lack of media coverage in Congo, however, leaves many in Congo frustrated, bewildered and overwhelmed by the complexity of a war that quickly drew in more than half a dozen African countries.


For the majority of Congolese, this war that started August 2, 1998 is primarily a war of aggression perpetrated by Uganda and Rwanda. These two countries initially denied attacking Congo, but later claimed that the security of their borders depended on their intervention. Rwanda also accused the Congo government coalition of training and using some of the ex-Hutu militia involved in the 1994 genocide.

Uganda and Rwanda backed DRC President Laurent Désiré Kabila and his Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL) in the 1996-97 war that resulted in the overthrow of President Mobutu Sese Seko.

Internally, the Congolese Armed Forces are fighting to defend the Kinshasa government against three Congolese rebel factions. The Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) was originally a coalition of Congolese Tutsis, ex-Mobutu loyalists, opposition politicians and disgruntled units of the Congolese Armed Forces, led by Congolese university professor Wamba dia Wamba and backed by Rwanda and Uganda. The RCD is based in Goma, eastern Congo.

Later, Uganda shifted its support to another rebel faction, Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, a businessman-turned-soldier who supported Mobutu when he was in power.

In recent months, however, Wamba had a falling out with some of the others in the RCD-Goma leadership and moved his headquarters to Kisangani with the blessing of the Ugandan government. RCD-Goma designated Dr. Emile Ilunga as the new leader of the Rwanda-backed faction. RCD-Kisangani continues to operate in Kisangani.

After many months of mediation by President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia as the official mediator of the Southern Africa Development Community in the Congo conflict, all of the heads of state and belligerents were invited to Lusaka, Zambia, to sign a cease-fire accord on July 10. However, the rebel factions did not, supposedly due to a last-minute disagreement on who would sign the agreement on behalf of the RCD – Wamba or Ilunga. More likely, the reason was because of a rift between the principal actors in the alliance fighting the Kinshasa government, Uganda and Rwanda.

In late July, Ugandan and Rwandan troops, each backing different Congolese rebels, fought each other in the streets of Kisangani, resulting in heavy military and civilian casualties. Millions of doses of polio vaccines prepared for children in the northeast as part of a nationwide anti-polio campaign were also destroyed.

The latest news announced a truce between Rwandan and Ugandan forces. In fact, all of the rebel factions in the DRC war have signed the Lusaka Cease-Fire Accords. However, this appears to be a mixed blessing.

Diplomats hail the Lusaka Accords as a major breakthrough. The most positive aspect is that all of the belligerents were brought together and agreed to work together for a lasting peace in Congo and the Great Lakes Region of central Africa.

At the last UN General Assembly, President Chiluba of Zambia called for a rapid deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Congo, pointing to the apparent unwillingness of the UN Security Council to commit forces and funds to African conflicts. This view has only been reinforced by the relatively rapid intervention of the UN in East Timor.

Meanwhile, several Congolese groups have highlighted the inadequacies of the cease-fire agreement. ASADHO, a Congolese human rights organization, maintains that the Lusaka agreement reinforces a culture of impunity by implying tht only those armed groups that have been targeted for disarming have committed human rights abuses, whereas all of the armed forces involved have done so during the course of the war.

Mwabilu Ngoyi, president of the Congolese International Union, an independent coalition of over 30 Congolese political parties and NGOs, described the cease-fire agreement in its present form as “a recipe for disaster of epic proportions and even renewed genocide”.

These same groups have suggested that by including a provision for an internal political dialogue while at the same time excluding the unarmed political opposition, the Lusaka Accords have set a dangerous precedent legitimizing the use of armed force as a means of gaining power. This is a lesson that will not be lost on others in the region with political aspirations.

Underscoring this point, the RCD-Goma has already exercised its negotiating power by rejecting the three mediators for the internal dialogue representing the Rome-based Sant’ Egidio Catholic lay organization (which served as mediator in the Mozambican civil war), the Organization of African Unity and the organization of Francophone countries.

Legitimate concerns over the cease-fire agreement have been raised. How do you get belligerents in an armed conflict to agree to a cease-fire while at the same time opening themselves up to possible prosecution? Should the unarmed opposition movements be included in cease-fire agreements? Does choosing nonviolence in a situation of violent conflict inevitably lead to marginalization in terms of the political process? Do nonviolent Christians belong on the margins?

It is important for Mennonites to listen to what Congolese Mennonites and others are saying in a country that, according to 1996-97 Mennonite World Conference statistics, has about 175,000 Mennonites, second only to the US. For these 175,000 Mennonites who have experienced two wars in three years, what does it mean to follow Jesus’ way of peace in the face of killing, rape and looting? What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus in a situation of war?

For North Americans, what is our responsibility towards our governments in light of the policies that have resulted in widespread death and destruction? How do we express our solidarity?

 – Rick Derksen, adapted from Peace Office Newsletter, October-December 1999

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Last modified May 4, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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