Forty-eight hours after presenting, Monday, February 27 in Paris, the “new software” codifying France’s relations with Africa, President Emmanuel Macron passed to the experimental stage during a mini-tour , dense (seventy-two hours on the spot) which led him to Gabon, Angola, Congo-Brazzaville and finally to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). There, expected at the turning point on the issue of violence in eastern DRC, he noted in particular that the application of his concept of ” partnership “ which supposes, in the words of the Elysée, that “It is not France that brings the solution by coming as a saviour”, contains a good deal of ambiguity. Which earned him a beating.
Félix Tshisekedi thus waited in vain, on Saturday, during a lively conference, for his French counterpart to condemn frankly and clearly “Rwanda’s unjust and barbaric aggression” against his country where his neighbor has been intervening for more than a year in the North Kivu region through an intermediary militia, in this case the M23. In private, however, the Elysee acknowledges holding “evidence that Rwanda has a direct channel with the M23 rebels and that Kigali is able to influence their position”. “The agenda and external support are known”, also declared President Macron. “The DRC should not be war booty. The open looting of the country must stop. Neither plunder, nor balkanization, nor war”, he launched in a press conference. But without ever mentioning the name of the main external support.
The latest report by UN experts on eastern DRC published at the end of December, however, leaves no doubt about the direct and documented Rwandan involvement; its logistical, financial and human support provided to this rebel group, composed mainly of Congolese Tutsi, who returned to the offensive in November 2022 after ten years of dormancy. No precise human toll has counted the dead on both sides, civilians or combatants. How many hundreds? Concomitantly, “1.5 million people were displaced in 2022 alone », reports the UN World Food Program (WFP) in a press release. The text welcomed, Saturday, March 4, the creation of a humanitarian air bridge to Goma (the regional capital threatened with asphyxiation by the rebels) announced the same day by the European Union and partly financed by France.
Faced with this tragedy that has been written in bloodshed for at least thirty years, Kinshasa therefore hoped that France not only would point an accusing finger at Rwanda but also call, from now on, to submit the regime of Kigali to international sanctions. “We can indeed appear out of step with certain expectations”we slip at the Elysée, which prefers to highlight its ability to speak to everyone, moreover in “a language of truth”.
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