Denis Mukwege criticizes President Tshisekedi’s “diplomacy”, a source of “instability” in eastern DRC

The doctor Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize 2018, expressed his fears, Wednesday July 20, on the security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “The regional diplomacy of the president [Félix Tshisekedi] objectively leads us towards a prolongation and aggravation of instability” in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, he said in a statement.

Mr. Mukwege made this statement after “the announcement of the deployment of the regional force of the East African Community (EAC)” in eastern DRC, where around 100 armed groups are active. “We are very circumspect” that beyond the partnership with the UN mission in the DRC, Monusco, “the President of the Republic has been engaged in bilateral military cooperation with Uganda for six months and, more recently, in a regional military cooperation project with the member states of the EAC”he added.

“Chronicle of an announced chaos”

For Mr. Mukwege, the superimposition “in a difficult and ineffective way” of these different forces in the DRC “sounds like a chronicle of announced chaos”. In mid-June, like many inhabitants of eastern Congo, the doctor had expressed his opposition to the deployment of a “regional force composed of countries at the root of destabilization, atrocities and the plunder of our resources”. In April, the DRC joined Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan in the EAC.

The fundamental questions on the rules of engagement of the new regional force, its mandate, its objectives, its duration or its political and legal responsibilities “find only opaque answers” because these agreements were “little transparent”, added Mr. Mukwege. For him, “the profound reform of the FARDC [l’armée congolaise], security services and the fight against impunity are the most appropriate measures to ensure pacification and lasting stability in eastern DRC”.

Congolese gynecologist, Denis Mukwege received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his action in favor of women victims of rape, used as a weapon of war in eastern DRC for nearly thirty years.