Kenyan soldiers risk coming into direct conflict with M23 rebels allegedly supported by Rwanda as they deploy under the East African Community peace initiative in insurgent-controlled areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern region.
The rebels fighting President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi’s government are reportedly backed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a claim Kigali denies.
According to military experts, Kagame’s battle-hardened troops have been permanently encamped in eastern DRC since ousting late President Juvenal Habyarimana’s government and chasing his army across the border in 1994.
Kagame’s Rwanda Patriotic Front forces also collaborated with troops from Uganda President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army to march deep into then-Zaire and depose long-serving dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was replaced by a rebel leader, Laurent Kabila.
With its vast mineral deposits, Eastern DRC has since become a playground for Rwandese and Ugandan troops, who have gone from bitter string allies to bitter foes.
Entering the fray as the spearhead of the East African regional force places the Kenya Defence Forces squarely in the middle of a long-running conflict that has drawn attention from distant African countries such as South Africa and Angola, as well as major global powers such as the United States, France and China.
Kagame has used the M23 insurgents to counter the remnants of Habyarimana’s forces, the so-called Interahamwe militia, who are widely regarded as the primary perpetrators of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Tshisekedi also believes that the regional force’s mandate is to assist his army in fighting the rebels and their Rwandese sponsors, rather than to maintain the peace while a political settlement is reached.
This is a position that Kagame rejects, and as a result, he has delayed withdrawing his troops from the conflict zone.
Kenya has played a key role in brokering a peace settlement in eastern DRC over the past year, led by former President Uhuru Kenyatta, who, upon leaving office last month, was asked by his successor, William Ruto, to continue spearheading what has now been dubbed the Nairobi Conclave.
