Charles Onyango-Obbo
07/14/12
War has flared up in the DR Congo again, and President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa is accusing Rwanda of supporting the M23 who took to arms in April, claiming they had been cheated of the spoils of a 2009 peace agreement.
The Rwanda government has been denying any involvement. One interesting thing is that without Rwanda, Kabila wouldn’t be president today. The Rwandese led the war that ousted the thieving Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, and installed Kabila’s old man, Laurent Kabila, as president.
Kabila only helped himself at the last election by, according to his opponents, stealing the vote.
Rwanda’s denials of being M23’s godfather has roots in the disastrous “Congo war” of 1998-2002 when it and Uganda found themselves getting serious stick, disgraced internationally for allegedly plundering the DRC. The two countries escaped a UN Security Council resolution to slap sanctions against them by the skin of their teeth.
And, in my reading, the real change is that Rwanda feels the need to strenuously deny involvement in the DRC. That is not the way of the wider East African region. Uganda’s military dictator Idi Amin attacked Tanzania openly in 1978.
La Sud-Africaine Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma a été élue présidente de la Commission de l'Union africaine (UA), le dimanche 15 juillet au soir, à Addis-Abeba, lors du 19è sommet de l'institution. Quatre tours ont été nécessaires aux chefs d'Etats réunis en huis clos pour départager le match entre le Gabonais, Jean Ping, président sortant, et sa concurrente.