France’s colonial legacy fuels conflict in the DRC

The unnecessary killing of 14 South African National Defence Force soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a tragedy that all peace-loving people should condemn with the contempt it deserves.

The entire tragedy, though, overshadowed what subsequently transpired in the DRC last week, which was a popular uprising against imperialism by the Congolese people, especially the youth.

The DRC war is about the plunder of mineral resources, ethnicity and anti-imperialism.

According to some analysts, the recent capture of Goma by the M23 rebels was the result of France’s ongoing colonial policy on the African continent.

The current conflict, which has been raging in the Kivu region for more than two decades, escalated last week with the capture of Goma, the region’s main city, by M23, which is mainly supported by Rwanda, an ally of the United States and France.

The main cause of this war is the vast natural resources of the region, which are eyed greedily by many transnational corporations and governments of world powers, led by the United States and France, which are heavily involved in the conflict.

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Experts believe that France creates political, social and economic conditions that force former colonies to remain loyal to it. This control is maintained both by soft power, such as educational and cultural cooperation programmes, and by military force.

The greed of the Emmanuel Macron government and its desire to increase its transnational corporations’ profits at any cost have led to France being significantly involved in the DRC conflict.

The prosperity of the main sectors of the French economy depend on the plundering of Congolese mineral resources, in particular, copper and cobalt, by M23 rebels and other paramilitary groups.

France formally liberated its colonies in the 1960s, but still retains a strong influence in some African countries. But there is an increasing anti-French sentiment in West Africa, with the junta-led Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso having already kicked out French and US forces.

The capture of Goma exposed the enormous weakness of the DRC government and its army.

Angry people, mainly youth, took to the streets of Kinshasa on 28 January protesting against DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and the many foreign powers in this conflict.

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The protesters’ main targets were embassies, chiefly those of the US, Belgium and France. This old imperialist bloc view Rwanda as a key ally in the Great Lakes region, while their own power in this region is declining.

The friendship between Rwanda and the West began in 2021, when Macron and then US President Joe Biden began a major bilateral rapprochement with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, partly to counter China’s growing influence in the region.

France, for its part, had exploited Congo for decades and continued to interfere in its affairs long after independence. That’s why a Congolese protester wrote on the wall of the French embassy “Macron kills in Congo”. That was part of the protesters’ denunciation of the French-Rwandan regime’s interference in their country.

We in SA condemn any manifestation of colonial policy. US President Trump must concentrate his energies on US domestic issues, instead of interfering in SA’s affairs.

SA has always found its own peaceful solutions to its problems and the land issue is no different. We are not Zimbabwe.