Fighting in North Kivu has displaced over 1.7 million people, pushing Congo\u2019s total displaced to a record 7.2 million.
\n Kinshasa
\nSoldiers from Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s 223rd Battalion were sent to the lush hillsides near Lake Kivu to repel a rebel advance threatening Goma, the largest city in the mineral-rich east and home to 2 million people.
\nBut as the M23 movement closed in last December, the army unit\u2019s commander faked a medical note to justify returning to Goma and, in his absence, his troops abandoned their positions without a fight, according to military prosecutors at his court martial.
\nThe case, in which eight officers were sentenced to death in May for cowardice and other crimes, exposed damaging disarray in Congo\u2019s armed forces, which have faced a cascade of losses as they struggle to curb a two-year uprising in the eastern borderlands with Rwanda. The officers are appealing their convictions.
\nThe fighting in North Kivu province has sent over 1.7 million people fleeing their homes, driving up the number displaced in Congo by multiple conflicts to a record 7.2 million, according to UN estimates.
\nCongo\u2019s President Felix Tshisekedi accuses Rwanda of backing M23, a group formed to defend the interests of Congolese Tutsis, the ethnic group to which his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, belongs. Tshisekedi has threatened to declare war against Rwanda in response, stoking fears of a broader conflict in Africa\u2019s Great Lakes region akin to two devastating wars between 1996 and 2003 that cost millions of lives.
\nA group of experts appointed by the UN Security Council to monitor Congo\u2019s conflicts has said it has \u201csolid evidence\u201d, including drone video and photographs, that Rwandan soldiers are fighting alongside the rebels.
\nRwanda has more than 3,000 troops deployed in North Kivu, outnumbering M23\u2019s own fighters, four UN sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments. Its backing has been critical to the rebels\u2019 rapid expansion, they said.
\nReuters spoke to six senior members of Congo\u2019s armed forces and two Western diplomats who said that Congolese military dysfunction is also a major factor in M23\u2019s battlefield successes.
\nThe officers cited mismanagement by army leaders, inexperienced and demoralised troops, and an over-reliance on proxy forces, which they said have kept Congo on the back foot despite ballooning defence spending and the support of troops from regional allies.
\nCongo\u2019s military has long been hobbled by internal divisions, insufficient resources, poor logistics and the country\u2019s endemic corruption, according to security analysts and the officers interviewed by Reuters. But the dysfunction has become acute in this crisis.
\n\u201cWe no longer know who commands whom, and the commanders are not in the field,\u201d said a colonel deployed against M23, who like other officers interviewed by Reuters was not authorised to speak to journalists.
\nThe Congolese government and army did not respond to requests for comment on the officers\u2019 assertions. When asked why Congo was struggling to contain M23, army spokesperson Sylvain Ekenge said Rwanda\u2019s direct engagement was the main challenge.
\nEkenge said a military reform drive launched in 2022 was starting to bear fruit, including the recruitment of 41,000 additional soldiers and acquisition of new weapons.
\nRwanda has repeatedly denied backing M23 and said accusations that its soldiers are fighting alongside the rebels are baseless. A Rwandan government spokesperson did not answer questions about the reported deployment when contacted for this article, however.
\n\u201cThe president of the DRC has said publicly that his enemy is President Kagame and the Rwandan government,\u201d the spokesperson, Yolande Makolo, wrote in a statement to Reuters. \u201cThe DRC has all the power to deescalate the situation if they want to, but until then Rwanda will continue to defend itself.\u201d
\nRwanda accuses Congo of financing and fighting alongside a Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), that has attacked Tutsis in both countries -accusations Makolo reiterated.
\nIn November, the Congolese military issued a statement saying any soldiers who cooperated with FDLR would be arrested. But some collaboration continues between army commanders and FDLR against M23, according to the UN sources and one Congolese officer.
\nM23 and FDLR deny joining forces with either government.
\nWilly Ngoma, an M23 spokesperson, said some rebels speak Kinyarwanda, Rwanda\u2019s main language, and get mistaken for Rwandans.
\nCure Ngoma, an FDLR spokesperson, said accusations of collaboration between Congo and FDLR were being used as a pretext by Rwanda to invade Congo. He accused Rwanda and M23 of attacking FDLR and Congolese forces, and said each side was defending itself.
\nCacaphony in Command
\nSuccessive Congolese governments and UN peacekeeping missions have struggled to quell violence in the east, where more than 100 armed groups are fighting over land and minerals, including rich deposits of gold and coltan, essential for making cell phones.
\nSome have received backing from Congo\u2019s eastern neighbours, which have a history of intervening in the region.
\nOne of the most prominent groups is M23, which says it is fighting to protect Tutsis from rivals like FDLR, whose ranks include Hutu extremists who fled to Congo after participating in the 1994 genocide targeting Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda.
\nSince 2022, M23 has waged its most sustained offensive in years, resulting in hundreds of deaths and sending columns of people fleeing with mattresses on their backs and children in tow. Many have sought safety in overcrowded camps near Goma, which suffered bombardments in recent months as the opposing sides traded fire.
\nAs violence spiralled, Tshisekedi placed North Kivu and a neighbouring province under military rule and committed the equivalent of nearly $4.3 billion to improving the armed forces by 2025. New military leadership was appointed, and officers suspected of disloyalty or corruption weeded out.
\nHowever, two officers said a revolving door of commanders and overlapping chains of command had caused confusion. North Kivu has had five provincial armed forces chiefs in as many years.
\n\u201cIt is a cacophony,\u201d said one high-ranking military intelligence officer. \u201cTo be honest, we don\u2019t even know who is in charge.\u201d
\nA recruitment drive launched in November 2022 boosted the size but not the quality of the army, three officers said.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t win a war with soldiers who have only had a few months\u2019 training. They can\u2019t withstand fire,\u201d said an officer based in Kinshasa.
\nOperations are further complicated by Congo\u2019s reliance on an array of partners and proxies, the officers said.
\nThey include a loose alliance of pro-government militias known as the Wazalendo, or Patriots, which they said were often poorly trained and undisciplined. Rights groups accuse Wazalendo members of abuses ranging from extortion to war crimes.
\n\u201cThe army has no control over them. We don\u2019t even know how many they are,\u201d said a lieutenant colonel deployed against M23.
\nThe Congolese government and army did not respond to questions about the frequent changes in command or use of proxy forces. But in June, North Kivu\u2019s military governor, Peter Chirimwami, said Tshisekedi had instructed that the Wazalendo be brought in line.
\nThe fighting has also drawn in troops from eight countries, including an East African regional force deployed in November 2022 to oversee M23\u2019s promised withdrawal from occupied areas. Those troops left Congo in December after Tshisekedi accused them of ineffectiveness.
\nTheir departure created openings for M23, which expanded its territory to unprecedented levels while a new Southern African force was deploying, the UN mission chief in Congo, Bintou Keita, told the Security Council in March.
\nTshisekedi has also asked the UN to speed up the departure of its peacekeepers, accusing them of failing to protect civilians from armed groups.
\nRwanda\u2019s Role
\nAfter taking office in 2019, Tshisekedi tried to improve relations with neighbours, including by signing economic and security cooperation deals with Rwanda.
\nBut as relations soured over M23\u2019s rebellion, Tshisekedi exchanged heated rhetoric with Kagame, especially while campaigning for reelection in December, when he threatened war against Rwanda. Kagame vowed that those who plan for Congo\u2019s destruction \u201cwill experience it instead\u201d.
\nThe United Nations, United States and other powers have repeatedly called on Rwanda to stop supporting M23 and withdraw its soldiers from Congo.
\nAs of end-March, Rwanda had about 3,250 soldiers supporting some 2,900 M23 fighters in North Kivu, two UN sources told Reuters.
\nAlthough much smaller than Congo, Rwanda has one of the region\u2019s most capable armies. Its troops engage in direct combat and operate advanced weapons that M23 lacks, including surface-to-air missiles and guided mortar systems, according to two other UN sources.
\nCongo has been equipping its forces with more sophisticated military technology, including armed drones and fighter jets. But it has had to hire foreign contractors to maintain and operate some of the equipment, two UN sources and a Congolese officer said, driving up costs.
\nEquipment losses are high. Congo deployed its first three armed drones in the east in November. Within three months, two had been shot down by suspected Rwandan air defence systems, the sources said.
\nCongo\u2019s government did not respond to questions about the cost of the war effort.
\nHowever, military spending more than doubled in 2023, reaching $794 million, according to financial data tallied by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. A former finance ministry official and another source involved in reviewing military expenses at the time put the figure even higher, at least $1.5 billion.
\nReuters could not independently confirm the amount.
\n\u201cIt was difficult to keep up,\u201d the former official said. \u201cSometimes we didn\u2019t get any more information than: it\u2019s urgent, it\u2019s for the high command.\u201d
\nUnits Fled
\nOn the frontlines, some officers question where the money is going, saying their men are paid as little as $100 a month and sometimes miss meals or only have beans to eat.
\n\u201cThe soldiers are badly paid. They are badly fed. It demoralises them,\u201d the lieutenant colonel said.
\nIn April, Congo\u2019s military chief, General Christian Tshiwewe, said those guilty of misappropriating funds would face sanction. However, he rejected complaints that troops were underfed, saying they received three meals a day.
\nFaced with the combined might of the Rwandan army and M23, Congolese troops have repeatedly retreated without a fight, according to four officers.
\n\u201cMany units have less than half the number of soldiers they are supposed to have due to desertions and casualties,\u201d said Jason Stearns, a former UN investigator who now runs the Congo Research Group at New York University. \u201cAbove all, there is a lack of accountability and morale.\u201d
\nThe army spokesman did not answer questions about the scale of desertions and territorial losses. But in a sign of how seriously the government takes the issue, Congo lifted a 21-year moratorium on capital punishment in February for crimes including desertion and treason.
\nThe eight officers convicted at a well-publicised court martial in May stared blankly as a colonel in a black beret declared them guilty of cowardice for abandoning their posts.
\nDefense attorney Alexis Olenga rejected the charge, saying the battalion commander, Colonel Patient Mushengezi, was being treated in Goma for high blood pressure at the time, while his men left to replenish their ammunition when another unit failed to deliver the supplies.
\nA growing number of arrests is spreading fear and distrust in the army, three officers said.
\n\u201cEven our greatest fighters have been put in prison for mere rumours,\u201d the military intelligence officer said. \u201cEvery officer who comes in is afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fighting in North Kivu has displaced over 1.7 million people, pushing Congo\u2019s total displaced to a record 7.2 million. Kinshasa Soldiers from Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s 223rd Battalion were sent to the lush hillsides near Lake Kivu to repel a rebel advance threatening Goma, the largest city in the mineral-rich east and home to 2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-416485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n