Tag: Democratic Republic of the Congo

At least 12 killed in bomb attacks on eastern DR Congo displacement camps | Conflict News

At least 12 people, including children, have been killed in twin bomb blasts that hit two camps for displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to government officials, the United Nations and an aid group.

Friday’s explosions targeted the camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near the city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, the UN said in a statement.

The attacks, in which at least 20 people were injured, were a “flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime”, it said.

A resident of one of the camps told Al Jazeera that many of the victims were sleeping in their tents when the area was attacked.

“We started running as the bombs were fired at the camp,” the resident said.

The Congolese military and the United States accused the military in neighbouring Rwanda and the M23 rebel group of being behind the attacks.

On Saturday, Rwanda denied the US accusations as “ridiculous”.

Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) is a “professional army” that would never attack displaced people. In a post on X, Makolo instead blamed the assault on militias supported by the Congolese military.

Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Njike Kaiko, a spokesperson for the DRC’s army in the region, said the attacks were retaliation for earlier DRC strikes on Rwandan army positions in which arms and ammunition were destroyed.

In a social media post, government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya also blamed the M23, which has taken over swaths of North Kivu in the last two years.

The DRC, the UN and Western countries have said Rwanda is supporting the group in a bid to control mines and mineral resources. Rwanda has denied the allegations.

Al Jazeera’s Fintan Monaghan reported that the shells were fired from an area controlled by M23.

The group denied any role in the attacks and instead blamed DRC forces, in a statement posted on X.

The intensifying fighting in eastern DRC has forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee neighbouring towns towards Goma, which is located between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border and is largely cut off from the country’s interior.

International charity Save The Children said it was present at one of the camps when shells struck close to a busy marketplace. It said dozens were injured, mostly women and children, and the final death toll remained unclear.

“A tent does not offer much protection from shelling,” said Greg Ramm, the aid group’s country director in the DRC.

“Protection of civilians, especially children and families living in displacement camps, must be prioritised,” he said, and called for “all parties to the conflict to end the use of explosive weapons in the proximity of populated areas”.

President Felix Tshisekedi, who was travelling in Europe, decided to return home on Friday following the bombings, a statement from his office said.

Tshisekedi has long alleged that Rwanda is destabilising DRC by backing the M23 rebels.

The bombings follow the group’s capture of the strategic mining town of Rubaya this week. The town holds deposits of tantalum, which is extracted from coltan, a key component in the production of smartphones.

Condemning the attack, US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said it was “essential that all states respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

The DRC branch of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said its teams had to stop distributing essential items and halt medical consultations on Friday because of the rising insecurity.

In a post on X, the group condemned the “increasingly regular use of heavy artillery” close to sites for internally displaced people around Goma.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Rwanda must halt its support for M23, during a joint news conference with Tshisekedi in Paris this week.

About six million people have been killed since violence erupted in 1996. It has also displaced about seven million people, many beyond the reach of aid.



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Beyond the Oil Age | Mining

The dark side of ‘green energy’ : The real cost of cobalt mining in the DRC and how it impacts the nation’s environment.

From smartphones to aircraft engines to the batteries of electric cars, cobalt is a critical component of modern life since the metal protects batteries from overheating and catching fire, extending their lifespans. As demand for cobalt has skyrocketed over the last few decades, it is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to most of Earth’s cobalt reserves, which has borne the brunt. The central African country has seen an expansion of industrial-scale mines that extract this metal. But this has led to forced evictions and human rights abuses as well as devastating climate implications. Mines – both legal and illegal – have been appearing all over the nation, and threatening the pristine tropical rainforest.

The film Beyond the Oil Age delves into a modern world trying to move to greener cleaner energy at the expense of countries like the DRC. The miracle metal cobalt, a superalloy, is now turning into a deadly chemical as toxic dumping has devastated landscapes, polluted water and contaminated crops. The quest for DRC’s cobalt has demonstrated how the clean energy revolution, meant to save the planet from perilously warming temperatures, is caught in a familiar cycle of environmental degradation, exploitation and greed.

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Eastern DRC ‘at breaking point’ as security, humanitarian crises worsen | Armed Groups News

War is on the doorstep of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Goma city and the region is at breaking point, activists and aid workers have said, as the United Nations sounds an alarm over the situation in the Central African country.

“One Congolese person out of four faces hunger and malnutrition,” Bintou Keita, the head of the UN’s DRC peacekeeping mission MONUSCO, told the UN Security Council this week, warning of a rapidly deteriorating security situation and a humanitarian crisis reaching near catastrophic levels.

“More than 7.1 million people have been displaced in the country. That is 800,000 people more since my last briefing three months ago,” she said.

Heavy fighting between the Congolese army and armed group M23 has intensified in the eastern part of the country since February, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes as the rebels make territorial gains.

The armed group “is making significant advances and expanding its territory to unprecedented levels”, Keita said at the UN on Wednesday.

This comes as fierce battles between the army and rebels have reached the outskirts of Sake, a village about 25km (15.5 miles) from regional economic hub Goma – marking a major advancement for M23.

‘War is at the door’

About 250,000 people fled their homes between mid-February and mid-March, according to UN figures, with the vast majority seeking shelter in and around Goma. Pockets of makeshift tents have popped up along roads or desolated areas with no access to basic aid.

“Things are at a breaking point,” said Shelley Thakral, a World Food Programme spokesperson, after returning to Kinshasa from a trip to Goma. “It’s quite overwhelming – people are living in desperate conditions,” she told Al Jazeera. Many people have fled in a hurry with no belongings and now find themselves in cramped camps with little prospect of returning, she added.

The effects are also being felt inside Goma, where civilians have seen the price of basic commodities skyrocketing and health services being disrupted by a steady stream of refugees coming in. “The situation is at its worst and war is at the door,” said John Anibal, an activist with civil society group LUCHA based in Goma.

As the fighting spreads, it is also intensifying. According to ACLED, an independent data-collecting group, the use of explosives, shelling and air raids since the start of this year has quadrupled compared with the average in 2023.

The eastern region of the DRC has been plagued by violence for 30 years.

More than 200 armed groups roam the area, vying for control of its minerals, including cobalt and coltan – two key elements needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles and gadgets, such as PlayStations and smartphones.

Among the groups, M23 has posed the biggest threat to the government since 2022 when it picked up arms again after being dormant for more than a decade. Back then, it had conquered large swaths of territory, including Goma, before being pushed back by government forces.

The conflict in eastern DRC is also deeply intertwined with the Rwandan genocide. In 1994, more than 800,000 Tutsis and Hutus were killed by violent Hutu armed groups. In the wake of the fighting, Hutu genocidaires and former regime leaders fled to the DRC.

Today, Kigali accuses Kinshasa of supporting one of the Hutu armed groups present in eastern DRC, the FDLR, which it sees as a threat to its government. And the DRC, alongside the UN and the US, have accused Rwanda of backing the M23. Kigali has denied this.

At the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, the DRC’s ambassador to the UN Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja called on the intergovernmental body to take a stronger stance against Rwanda.

“The council must cross the Rubicon of impunity and impose on Rwanda sanctions commensurate with its crimes,” said Nzongola-Ntalaja.

Rwanda responded heatedly. The country’s UN representative, Ernest Rwamucyo, said that “ethnic cleansing targeting Congolese Tutsi communities reached unprecedented levels”.

‘Addressing partial symptoms’

The renewed fighting has come at a delicate moment for the country as the MONUSCO mission is pulling out of the country after 25 years at the request of the Congolese government. The first phase of the withdrawal is expected to be complete by the end of April, and all peacekeepers will leave by the end of the year.

The government of President Felix Tshisekedi accused the UN mission of failing to protect civilians. Instead, it gave soldiers of an East African regional bloc the mandate to fight back against the rebels.

But that ended last December after the president accused the regional force of colluding with the rebels instead of fighting them. So he turned to another force, SADECO, composed of southern African nations to do the job.

Observers are sceptical that this new mission will succeed where its predecessors failed.

“I don’t see this as a stabilising intervention, at most, it will postpone the issue because there is no one military solution,” said Felix Ndahinda, a researcher on conflict in the Great Lakes Region.

Structural weaknesses in governance, lack of state presence in remote regions and interethnic rivalries, are among causes that the state is failing to address, Ndahinda told Al Jazeera.

“In the last 30 years, different interventions have been addressing partial symptoms of the problem rather than looking at the full picture – till that is not done, you can only postpone, but not resolve, the issue,” Ndahinda said.

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David Miliband on global crises: Gaza, DRC, Sudan, Ukraine | Conflict

The International Rescue Committee president discusses the urgent international responses required for ongoing emergencies.

In this episode, we explore the essential role of non-governmental organisations in confronting global emergencies.

The International Rescue Committee, initiated by Albert Einstein, is known for its impactful work.

The organisation delivers aid and hope to at-risk populations in conflict zones, notably Gaza, marked as the most hazardous area for civilians and aid workers.

Amid turmoil in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine, David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, talks to Al Jazeera.

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Democratic Republic of Congo is facing a humanitarian crisis | Humanitarian Crises

Heavy fighting between Congolese army and M23 rebels is fuelling displacement and regional tensions.

M23 rebels have closed in on the capital of North Kivu as fighting with government forces escalates in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hundreds of thousands of people are arriving in Goma in the hope of finding food, water and shelter.

This situation is expected to worsen when United Nations peacekeepers withdraw from the country at the end of this year.

What is driving this conflict? Can a lasting peace be achieved?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Patrick Muyaya Katembwe – Minister of Communication and Media and spokesperson for the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Lawrence Kanyuka – Political spokesperson, M23 rebel group

Crystal Orderson – Journalist at The Africa Report

Fred Bauma – Executive director, senior fellow at the NYU Center on International Cooperation

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US ‘strongly condemns’ violence in DR Congo after alleged drone attack | Conflict News

State Department says escalating violence poses risk to millions of people facing displacement and deprivation.

The United States has condemned growing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), blaming an armed group it says is backed by neighbouring Rwanda.

Fighting has flared in recent days in the eastern part of the DRC between the M23 rebel group and government forces, resulting in dozens of soldiers and civilians being killed or wounded.

The fighting has also pushed tens of thousands of civilians to flee towards the eastern city of Goma, which is located between Lake Kivu and the border with Rwanda.

“This escalation has increased the risk to millions of people already exposed to human rights abuses including displacement, deprivation, and attacks,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“The United States condemns Rwanda’s support for the M23 armed group and calls on Rwanda to immediately withdraw all Rwanda Defense Force personnel from the DRC and remove its surface-to-air missile systems, which threaten the lives of civilians, UN and other regional peacekeepers, humanitarian actors, and commercial flights in eastern DRC,” Miller added.

On Saturday, the DRC accused Rwanda of carrying out a drone attack which damaged a civilian aircraft at the airport in Goma.

“It had obviously come from the Rwandan territory, violating the territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike Kaito said in a video broadcast.

The DRC, the United Nations and Western countries have accused Rwanda of backing the rebels in a bid to control vast mineral resources, which Kigali has denied.

South Africa said on Wednesday it would send 2,900 troops to support the DRC’s forces against the armed group.

The DRC has for decades been at war with many rebel groups that emerged in its resource-rich eastern region in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.

M23, which broke away from the DRC army in 2012, says it is fighting in defence of ethnic Congolese Tutsis who face tribal discrimination in the DRC.

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DR Congo accuses Rwanda of airport ‘drone attack’ in restive east | Armed Groups News

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has accused Rwanda of carrying out a drone attack that damaged a civilian aircraft at the airport in the strategic eastern city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Fighting has flared in recent days around the town of Sake, 20km (12 miles) from Goma, between M23 rebels – which Kinshasa says are backed by Kigali – and Congolese government forces.

“On the night of Friday to Saturday, at 2-o-clock in the morning local time, there was a drone attack by the Rwandan army,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike Kaito, army spokesperson for North Kivu province.

“It had obviously come from the Rwandan territory, violating the territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” he added in a video broadcast by the governorate.

The drones “targeted aircraft of DRC armed forces”. However, army aircraft “were not hit”, he said, but “a civilian aircraft was hit and damaged”.

The Rwandan government did not immediately respond to the allegations.

An AFP correspondent and Goma residents reported hearing two loud explosions around the time of the blast. A security source told AFP about “two bombs” on Saturday and said experts were on site to check where they had been fired from.

Despite the bomb reports, national and international traffic was normal, sources at the airport said.

‘Escalating violence’

Alain Uaykani, reporting for Al Jazeera from Goma on Saturday, said that if the drone attack targeted military craft, as the army has said, it shows that M23 rebels are capable of more advanced attacks than the Congolese government may have expected.

The DRC, the United Nations and Western countries have said Rwanda is supporting the rebels in a bid to control vast mineral resources, an allegation Kigali has denied.

The rebels have conquered vast swaths of North Kivu in the last two years.

According to a confidential UN document seen by the AFP earlier this week, the Rwandan army is using sophisticated weapons, such as surface-to-air missiles, to support M23.

A “suspected Rwandan Defence Force mobile surface-to-air missile” was fired at a UN observation drone last Wednesday without hitting it, the report said.

The UN Security Council voiced concern this week at “escalating violence” in eastern DRC, and condemned the M23 offensive near Goma.

Dozens of soldiers and civilians have reportedly been killed or wounded in the fighting over the last 10 days.

‘A new front’

The latest fighting has pushed tens of thousands of civilians to flee neighbouring towns towards Goma, which stands between Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border and is practically cut off from the country’s interior.

“The security situation remains very volatile in the Sake area where for several days government forces with their allies are trying to remove the M23 rebels on several mountains that they occupied around this strategic city at the gate of Goma,” Uaykani reported from Goma.

“While the government coalition is trying to block the advance of rebels in this part of Sake, since this morning security sources reported that the rebels are also fighting with the DRC army in the village of Kashuga, in the territory of Rutshuru, at the limit of territory with Walikale,” Uaykani reported.

He said fighting in this part of the country is significant for the rebels as it has opened “a new front” for Walikale, which had never before been affected by the years-long conflict.

“It’s also very significant because it’s in this territory that several international companies are based with larger mining activities in the region. For the past week, several outlying neighbourhoods of Goma have already been targeted by bombs, fired by the M23 according to the authorities,” he added.

With multiple diplomatic efforts failing to quell the violence in DRC, the continent’s leaders are expected to discuss the conflict at the 37th African Union summit taking place in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa this weekend.

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Two South African soldiers killed in DR Congo amid uptick in violence | Armed Groups News

The soldiers are part of a Southern African contingent deployed to fight the many armed groups roaming eastern DR Congo.

South Africa said on Thursday that two of its soldiers had been killed by mortar fire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the first fatalities since it deployed troops there.

“As a result of this indirect fire, the SANDF suffered two fatalities and three members sustained injuries. The injured were taken to the nearest hospital in Goma for medical attention,” the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said.

The soldiers were sent to DRC as part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission to fight against armed rebel groups in the east.

South Africa announced this week it would be sending a new contingent of 2,900 soldiers to eastern Congo. It was not immediately clear if those killed and injured were part of that new deployment.

The base that was hit was in the North Kivu province, SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said. The injured were taken to a hospital in the regional capital Goma.

Violence has been on the rise in the conflict-hit region in recent weeks, with many blaming attacks on the M23 rebel group that has been fighting Congolese soldiers in the region for years.

Kinshasa says M23, one of more than 120 armed groups in the region, is receiving military support from neighbouring Rwanda. Experts from the United Nations and European Union have said there is evidence backing this but Rwanda denies the allegations.

But M23 has indicated in recent statements that it is amid an onslaught in eastern Congo, leading to fears the group is again targeting Goma, which it once seized 10 years ago.

More than one million people have been displaced by the conflict since November, aid groups say. That adds to the 6.9 million who already fled their homes in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises.

On Thursday, the Norwegian Refugee Council said the recent advance of armed groups toward the key town of Sake, near Goma, “poses an imminent threat to the entire aid system” in eastern Congo.

“The isolation of Goma, home to over 2 million people and hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals who have fled clashes with armed groups, would bring disastrous consequences to the region,” the NRC said.

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Thousands flee in eastern DR Congo as M23 rebels advance near Goma | Armed Groups News

Thousands of people are fleeing violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as fighting intensifies between the Congolese army and the M23 armed group.

Fighters reportedly surrounded the strategic town of Sake on Wednesday, a crucial step before reaching Goma, the capital of North Kivu. Capturing Sake would deal a logistical blow to Congolese soldiers.

The Congolese army and United Nations peacekeepers have been struggling to contain M23’s advance. And as fighting continues, thousands of those who fled Sake have arrived in Bulengo, about 10km (six miles) west of Goma.

Thousands are “on the road right now”, trying to escape the violence and get to Goma, Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani said, reporting from Bulengo on Wednesday.

“They have been fighting for a week right now, but this morning, again, rebels have tried to take over the main city,” he explained.

It remains unclear whether the army or the rebels are now controlling the area, Uaykani added.

“The situation in Sake is very bad with heavy fighting between soldiers and M23 rebels. They have attacked with heavy guns and bombs fell on the city … this is why we are leaving for Goma,” Justin Musau, a displaced person from Sake, told Al Jazeera.

Another displaced person, Henriette Muyume, said, “We are running from the fighting between rebels and soldiers. We don’t know where we can go … but we can’t survive in this situation, it’s too much for us.”

‘Targeting Goma’

In a region already plagued with militia violence, M23 rebels launched a major new offensive in March 2022, sparking a conflict that has led to military intervention and mediation efforts by East African regional leaders. They brokered a ceasefire last year but it has been repeatedly violated.

Clashes between the rebels, army forces and self-defence groups that support them have escalated recently, forcing entire communities in Masisi and Rutshuru territories to flee to perceived areas of greater safety on the outskirts of Goma.

Meanwhile in Goma on Wednesday, a rocket landed near a university. There were no casualties from the attack, which blasted a crater into an area of open ground in the Lac Vert neighbourhood northwest of Goma, but it underscored the potential threat to the city of approximately two million people.

“This shows that M23 is targeting Goma now, they want to kill people in Goma. The government has to do something to stop M23’s progress,” student Sophonie Bayonga, 25, told the Reuters news agency at the scene.

The DRC government this week promised that it would not let Goma, situated close to the border with Rwanda, fall into M23 hands. The armed group briefly overran North Kivu province in 2012.

On Wednesday, M23 said in a statement that this was not its goal and described its actions as “defensive manoeuvres”.

The DRC, Western powers and a UN expert group said the Tutsi-led rebel group is supported by Rwanda. Rwanda has denied all involvement, but the accusations have led to a diplomatic crisis in the region.

42,000 displaced

Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence in the restive east, with many killed in bombings and reprisal attacks.

About 42,000 people have been displaced from Masisi alone since February 2, the UN’s humanitarian office OCHA said on Tuesday.

M23 made major advances in the town of Mweso last month, bringing the conflict even closer to Goma, which is about 100km (62 miles) away.

Natalia Torrent, head of a Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) team in Mweso, said violent clashes broke out two weeks ago as the army and pro-government militia tried to reclaim the town.

After a lull, fighting picked up over the weekend and the MSF team received 30 wounded people in recent days, she told Reuters by phone on Tuesday.

MSF has had to evacuate some of its own staff after bullets struck a hospital in which thousands of Mweso residents were taking shelter. Most have since deserted the town.

The UN peacekeeping mission in DRC deployed troops at the end of January to secure a corridor for people fleeing Mweso. Many have sought safety in Sake.

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The UK cannot ignore the crisis in DRC | Opinions

“Our daily lives are powered by a human and environmental catastrophe in the Congo.” – Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

In mid-December, I joined hundreds of thousands of people in central London calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. “We are united”, I told the crowd, “in our demand for peace and justice for the Palestinian people.”

Looking out to a sea of Palestinian flags, I was buoyed by the determination of ordinary people to show solidarity with those living under systems of violence and occupation. And I was moved by their willingness to prove how these systems were global in scope and scale. “I want us all to be active as well,” I concluded, “for peace and justice in the other wars that are fuelled by the arms trade – in Sudan, in Yemen, in West Papua, and in the Congo.”

Against the global backdrop of deafening silence, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently experiencing a harrowing humanitarian crisis. Nearly seven million people have been internally displaced in the DRC and 26 million need humanitarian aid. One in three children are out of school. Tens of thousands of civilians experience physical, sexual and gender-based violence, used as a tool of control and degradation. Meanwhile, the DRC remains one of the UNHCR’s most underfunded operations worldwide.

Today’s humanitarian crisis in the DRC did not emerge out of nowhere. It is an enduring legacy of colonial theft, violence and exploitation. During the Atlantic slave trade, more than five million Congolese people were captured, transported to the Americas and enslaved.

Descendants of those who evaded abduction and enslavement would endure the brutality of Belgian King Leopold II. Amassing enormous riches from slave labour, Leopold was responsible for the deaths of more than 10 million Congolese men, women, and children.

Independence in the 1960s was supposed to be a turning point; Patrice Lumumba was democratically elected on the promise of a free Congo. Threatening the interests of Western nations who sought to exploit his country, Lumumba was assassinated on January 17, 1961, with the support of the United States and Belgium.

For the Congolese people, colonial exploitation never ended. Today, the world relies on the DRC for natural resources, including diamonds, gold, timber, copper, oil, and gas. It produces 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, an essential element in almost every lithium-ion rechargeable battery present in mobile phones and laptops many of us use every day.

These resources are largely controlled by foreign companies, which profit from resources that should otherwise be owned by the Congolese people. There is a reason why the DRC ranks 179 out of 191 in the Human Development Index – and it is not because the country lacks sufficient resources. It is because these resources are extracted to satisfy foreign corporate greed.

Bloated private corporations do not lose little sleep over the resultant poverty, environmental degradation, or displacement, as communities are forced from their land to make way for mining operations. The continued exploitation of resources has also created a playground for various armed groups, which have used violence to maintain control over mines in the DRC.

For decades, civilians have paid a particularly heavy price, most notably in the eastern regions of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. Most recently, on June 11, 2023, an attack on the Lala refugee camp in Ituri province killed 46 people and displaced 7,800.

One of the most notable militia groups is the March 23 Movement (M23). Several human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as the United Nations, have reported that M23 has recruited child soldiers and committed unlawful killings, rape and other war crimes. The same human rights organisations have published evidence that M23 relies on financial and military support from DRC’s neighbour, Rwanda.

Congolese officials have repeatedly accused Rwanda of plundering their country’s natural resources. In an interview for the Financial Times, DRC’s finance minister, Nicolas Kazadi, said Kigali exported almost $1bn in gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten in 2022, despite having few of these mineral deposits of its own. The UN has previously documented how minerals mined in the DRC are smuggled into Rwanda where they are tagged as locally produced.

While Belgium, France, and Germany have condemned Rwanda’s support for M23, the United Kingdom government refuses to do so. How can they, when an honest recognition of these human rights abuses would expose the illegality of its flagship policy: to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda?

Continuing to double down on this policy in the face of court rulings, the government does not just show contempt for people risking their lives to reach a place of safety. It is actively putting them back at risk of persecution.

Our country has played an enormous role in generating the conditions for violence, discrimination and human rights abuses in the DRC, and indeed the Global South. Our government should recognise its responsibility to redress – not aggravate – this colonial trauma. That means, at the very least, fulfilling its international obligations towards the refugees, and their right to live in safety and peace.

Indeed, we all have a responsibility to put pressure on our government to do so in the name of decolonisation. Many of the resources that we enjoy on a daily basis – including the technology you might be using to read this very article – rely on the DRC’s exploitation. The least we can do is use this technology to effect change. That means writing to your local member of Parliament to ask them to demand that our government unequivocally condemns Rwanda for their support of M23, takes appropriate sanctions, and increases aid to the DRC.

Many of those in positions of power and influence pretend as if the plight of people in the Global South simply does not matter. Whenever there is a crisis, if it is in Africa, then it may as well not have happened.

How much more violence, death and displacement should the people of the DRC endure before the international community wakes up and takes action? The people of the DRC – just like the people of Palestine, West Papua, Yemen, Sudan and beyond – deserve to live in peace, justice and freedom. Their voices cannot be ignored any longer.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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