By G. Dunkel
February 6, 2025
While MONUSCO, the United Nations stabilization mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), counts nearly 100 armed groups fighting in the eastern Congo, the crisis escalated recently when the city of Goma was seized by the March 23 Movement (M23).
Goma, the Congo, January 2025.
The Congolese government reported that 773 people were killed and 2,280 were injured in the fighting in Goma between the Congolese army — Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) — and a popular militia called the Wazalendo on one side and the M23 coalition backed by 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers on the other side.
While calling for the Rwandan Army to withdraw from the Congo, the U.S., Britain and France are all financing Rwanda, which is a very militarized state.
The Rwandan army and M23- militia invasion is a major escalation of the genocide in the Congo. Many of the 2 million people living in Goma are in displacement camps, having fled from their towns and villages when they were raided by M23 with the military, operational and financial support of Rwanda.
The people of Goma are facing a humanitarian crisis. The M23 is responsible for atrocious war crimes, including massacres, rapes, torture of civilians and destruction of villages.
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the Congolese minister of foreign affairs, speaking on NPR’s Weekend Edition said: “The humanitarian situation in Goma and around Goma is dire and catastrophic. In the past days, the Rwanda Defense Forces — the army of Rwanda — launched an assault against the city of Goma. They did so by knowingly cutting water supply lines, electricity and access routes, as well as shutting down the airport and all capacity to fly over Goma.” (Feb. 1)
Neo-colonial armies under imperialist control
Goma, the Congo, January 2025.
From the 19th century, when King Leopold II of Belgium began claiming it as his private property in 1885, through 1961, when Patrice Lumumba, the founder of the Congolese National Movement and its first prime minister, was assassinated, the Congolese people have stubbornly resisted the cruel, vicious exploitation of its colonial controller Belgium.
Since Lumumba’s assassination in a plot organized by the U.S. CIA in cooperation with the French and Belgian secret services, the Congolese people have had to resist the neo-colonial attacks of the “foot soldiers” of the imperialist powers, multiple armed groups, including the Rwandan army in recent years.
While only 20% of the Congolese people have access to electricity, according to the World Bank, their country contains mineral resources that are essential to the ongoing technological improvements like AI and electric vehicles. Cobalt, lithium and coltan are the minerals needed to advance this technology.
Around 71% of the total production of cobalt in the world and 35% of its coltan come from the DRC. As long as the unfettered violence in the DRC allows the cheap production of the essential minerals, the imperialist powers will do little to stop it.
While the DRC is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of its resources, it has one of the poorest populations. In 2022, just two of its exports — copper and cobalt — brought in $25 billion while 75% of its people lived on less than $2.15 a day. One of every six Congolese in 2022 regularly didn’t get enough to eat.
The Friends of the Congo — a global effort to end poverty and exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to give Congolese people control over their resources and return wealth to its rightful owners — issued the following demands: An immediate end to the military aid the U.S. sends to Rwanda; end U.S. support for Rwanda’s aggression; provide immediate humanitarian relief; and the withdrawal of all Rwandan troops and M23 militia from the occupied territory.
The Congolese people need and deserve our solidarity.
Long live the spirit of Lumumba! Long live international solidarity!
Joe Piette contributed to this article.
