Africa and the new Cold War

Why Africa countries need to harmonize their actions if our continent is to avoid external intrusions destabilizing our states

THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda |  The Cold War is back. The US with her allies in Europe and Asia want to maintain the status quo. China backed by Russia are trying to challenge the America-led world order. This has led to intense rivalry for power and influence around the world. As the two sides compete, Africa is being drawn into this rivalry. This may lead to unpleasant outcomes for our continent which is least prepared to defend her interests. It will require adroit leadership to navigate the treacherous terrain of international relations and diplomacy and void getting ruined in the process.

The east and central African region is being almost irresistibly drawn into this global conflict. The fulcrum of this struggle is the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has immense natural resources, and its location is of vital geostrategic value (it has nine neighbors) making it of great interest to the great powers. But it has a very weak state in its western part, an absentee state in its eastern part, deep internal political and ethnic divisions and a very parochial ruling elite who rely on rumor and emotions to make national policy. Because of all this, there are more than 200 rebel groups in eastern DRC with continually shifting alliances and allegiances.

Because it cannot control her territory, Congo’s neighbors get drawn into her internal politics. Some, like Uganda, Rwanda, Angola, Central Africa Republic, South Sudan, (the last two countries are failing state themselves) have hostile armed groups who exploit Congo’s territorial vastness, weak and/or absentee state and dense forests to use her as a sanctuary. Their stability sometimes demands entry into DRC territory to fight these rebels. Yet the international forces with interest in her natural resource wealth project their ambitions on its neighbors especially Uganda and Rwanda, claiming that such entries are driven by her mineral wealth.

Africa needs leaders willing to look beyond their petty differences and focus on external threats to the stability of our region. Our region needs to resist efforts by world powers to insert themselves in Congo’s issues. The most important step is to bolster regional institutions to take the lead in resolving regional problems. Institutions like the East African Community, SADC, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGR) and the African Union are very important if Africa is to avoid the tragedy of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. International forces seeking hegemony need a weak and divided continent to push through their agendas. They will therefore exploit every loophole to divide our countries.

In 2002, DRC joined the EAC. It agreed with neighbors to send an east African force to stand between its army and the rebel M23. The basis of that agreement was a recognition by Kinshasa and her EAC partners that M23 has legitimate grievances and legitimate demands. Thus, EAC leaders agreed with President Felix Tshisekedi that Kinshasa and M23 implement a peace deal they had signed. The EAC would deploy troops to stand between the government and the rebels to facilitate the implementation of the peace agreement. Uganda and Kenya deployed their troops in Congo. A few months later, Tshisekedi unilaterally dismissed the EAC force and called in forces from SADC to fight M23 for him.

Yet using external armies to defeat local rebel groups has not proven a formula for success. In 2013, South Africa and Tanzania under SADC deployed in DRC to fight M23. They beat it badly and its forces ran into Uganda where President Yoweri Museveni offered them refugee status. Museveni was at the time the chair of the ICGR and held eight heads of state meetings in one year to solve this problem. It was agreed tM23 return to Congo and be resettled. Member countries pledged to contribute money to this program. Immediately this agreement was reached, President Joseph Kabila was the first to deposit $20m on the ICGR account.

Things were promising when the “international community” through the UN intervened. It offered to finance the resettlement program. Immediately this happened, Kabila withdrew the Congo money DRC had deposited. The other regional countries also did not meet their pledges. The UN did nothing. Museveni told Kabila in one of the ICGR heads of state summits that Uganda does not have fences around refugee camps. Hence, the country has no capacity to stop M23 rebels moving back to Congo. It was therefore imperative to implement the resettlement program. Kabila did nothing preferring the UN to handle M23 for him.

This is the problem with all efforts to get leaders in Kinshasa to solve problems in the eastern DRC. They always want to subcontract outsiders to do the work. And this is also where Africa’s internal divisions open vents for international forces to come and try imposing textbook solutions on a rather complicated reality. These international forces dress their interventions in the language of human rights, democracy and humanitarianism, claiming they are promoting “universal values”. But behind these idealistic claims lie ideological interests seeking to entrench hegemony over our lives and economic forces seeking our resources.

Africa needs to see all this for what it is – an effort to dominate us. This is also the reason African leaders need to learn the art of working together. Africa was colonized in the 19^th century because these same Western forces exploited our internal divisions. They played one chief or kingdom against another. Even though the destinies of these chiefdoms and kingdoms were one, the colonialist prevailed. And this was also largely because of ideological persuasion. For the colonizer convinced Africans that he had come to fight the tyranny of our customs and the despotism of our chiefs and bring Christianity (i.e. end “devil worship”), commerce (bring economic prosperity) and civilization. It is happening today.

For instance, why did SADC disregard the EAC agreement that promoted dialogue between Kinshasa and M23? The main force in SADC is South Africa, which has powerful multinational companies involved in mineral extraction. Is Pretoria acting to promote these interests? Under the current Cold War, it is imperative that regional bodies in Africa coordinate their efforts, seeing their roles not as competitive but as complimentary. Right now, the United States is using the UN to undermine every effort at promoting a peaceful resolution to the conflicts in the DRC. May be America and her allies are seeing the hand of Russia and China in DRC via Uganda and Rwanda. But will regional leaders unite to thwart these foreign machinations?

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amwenda@ugindependent.co.ug