The DRC conflict: What you need to know
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This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello, it's Hannah Gelbart here and you're listening to What In The World from the BBC World Service. Today we're going back to DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is the second largest country in Africa. There have been huge clashes in Goma as the Congolese army and the rebel group M23 battle to take control of the city. Rwanda is accused of supporting M23, which it denies.

Congolese and Rwandan troops have exchanged fire across the border. The rebel advance has displaced more than 400,000 civilians in less than a month. Officials in the DRC say the army now controls most of Goma, but the M23 rebels dispute this.

Some people have fled the city, but others are trapped in their homes. There's gunshots all over the city, even nearby our houses. The water has been cut off. Electricity has been cut off. This level of violence is not new to DRC. It's been plagued with conflict for decades, mostly between different armed groups vying for the country's natural resources.

The origins of this current fighting can be partly traced back to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Now the country faces a number of challenges, from war, corruption and illegal mining, to political unrest and the mpox virus outbreak. So in this episode, you're going to get the background to what's going on in DRC. Now let's hear from Sam Lando, a journalist for BBC Monitoring in Nairobi. Hi Sam.

To start off with, who is M23 and where do they come from? It's a Congolese rebel group, mostly composed of Kinyarwanda-speaking former soldiers, allegedly also receiving support from across the border countries.

from Rwanda. It has grievances against the authorities for ethnic exclusion, violence and so forth. They initially appeared around 2012, but basically there was a climate of violence and resentment against basically Congolese Tutsis. They say the government had not protected them or their community. So this was the basis of their rebellion. They turned out to be very well armed.

at the time and by 2013 they had captured Goma which is the largest city in eastern Congo next to the border with Rwanda and Uganda and the capital of North Kivu province so

Eventually, they were forced out during regional peace talks and demobilized with the support of countries like Uganda and so forth. So that conflict appeared to have been resolved until it re-emerged around 2022, when again, this group again accused the Congolese government of not living up to

the commitments it made to end the conflict from 2012 and 2013. So they went on an offensive. There have been various efforts to mediate. And it's the UN that says that M23 is receiving support from Rwanda. You also mentioned the Tutsis. Tell me a bit about them. So the Tutsis are

are an ethnic group in Central Africa, primarily in Rwanda and Burundi, but also historically also in Eastern Congo and in Uganda. Because of this history of ethnic conflict, which sort of exploded in 1994 with this terrible genocide in Rwanda, the Tutsis were the target of a kind of Hutu genocidal ideology. And so if you go back in history,

A bit in history, it's a bit complicated, but Rwanda and Burundi have two main ethnic groups, Hutus and Tutsis. Tutsis historically were the dominant group, but were a minority. After independence in Rwanda, there was a policy of trying to strip Tutsis of their power, which caused various waves of immigration and ultimately a genocide in 1994-1995.

This ideology sort of also got seeded in Congo, according to the Rwandans now, and which led to problems for the Congolese Tutsis as well, where they're also targeted in violence. Basically, the conflict in Rwanda got exported to eastern Congo.

So it's one of the factors of instability in eastern Congo. That kind of explains a bit about how Rwanda is involved in the fighting and in the conflict now. What does Rwanda have to say about this conflict? Well, I mean, they deny that they have troops in eastern Congo, but there's a lot of

evidence. And as you said, the UN, various other bodies have been very clear that Rwanda is an active participant in this conflict. The Rwandans say that they have security interests in eastern DR Congo. They're still remnants of the regime that organized the genocide in the early 1990s, which sought refuge in eastern DR Congo. So one of these groups is called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of

which was basically formed by ex-soldiers of the regime that conducted the genocide in the early 1990s. So the Rwandan, their justification for having a presence in eastern Congo is because of the continued existence of this group, which they say is being propped up or being supported by the government of eastern DRC, which is using various armed groups.

to help the army contain M23 and Rwandan forces. So that goes back to the 90s and the genocide in Rwanda. Let's go a little bit further back in history. So the DRC was under this bloody colonial rule, firstly by the King of Belgium, then by the Belgian government, and it got its independence in 1960. But as we've been hearing, it's had...

endless instability since then. It's a vast country. It has vast resources. The government has historically not been able to control its territory effectively. The U.S. borders nine countries.

So it's a problem for the government in Kinshasa, even if it was effective and even if it wasn't weighed down by problems. To control the country, particularly in eastern Congo, there are all kinds of resources which are valuable and which basically have been turned into conflict minerals. It's got gold, hasn't it? It's got coltan, which is a metal used in mobile phones and laptops. Yes.

Yeah, it has gold, diamonds, cobalt, coltan. It's just basically any mineral that you can think of. There are large deposits in eastern Congo or basically the whole country. If it has all of those resources, why isn't it a much wealthier country than it is? This is an accusation that the Congo government makes against Rwanda that, OK, they claim that there is oppression against Congolese Tutsis, but really this is about

the resources of Lord Kivu, specifically Colton. The Congo have a case against Apple, accusing Apple of using conflict minerals which have been extracted in territories taken by M23. As you say, Sam, Apple has been accused of using conflict minerals from DRC. Apple says it strongly disputes those claims and that it's deeply committed to responsible sourcing of minerals. We

We have done an episode on this called The Dirty Secret Behind Clean Tech. And if you're listening to this and you want to hear more about that, more about what's in your phone and where it comes from, you can find that wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Sam, back to you now. This recent spate of fighting has been in Goma. Why is Goma so significant in all this? So Goma itself isn't a major mining centre, but it's the capital of North Kivu province. It's also right on the border with Rwanda.

So it's like a very busy commercial center. It has a large population. As I said, it's the biggest city in that part of Adia Congo. It's kind of a symbolic move by M23 to show they now control the province. It also obviously, as the capital, has the bulk of the infrastructure, airports and so forth, which could be useful to further their aims.

You mentioned the UN. What is the role of the UN and other regional peacekeepers in all of this? So the UN has been in Congo since the late 1990s, so it probably is the longest running peace operation in the world and one of the largest. When they first established this UN force,

His job really was to hold the country together. In the 1990s, there were two large conflicts that sort of succeeded each other in DRC, actually, that drew in most of its neighbors and caused a huge amount of suffering in the country. So this is, I think, the genesis of the UN's involvement in this country. The country had gone through a terrible series of conflicts.

It now needed to be rebuilt. And so that has been a gradual process. For most of the country, there has been a gradual return to order. But eastern Dear Congo is still plagued by insecurity. Partly this is driven by all these armed groups which are engaged in illegal exploitation of minerals. The UN hasn't been able to overcome these groups, but still.

It has helped the country restore its national army and its administration. With all of this going on, what's it like for civilians there? Well, specifically in North Kivu, according to the UN, again, there have been more than 2 million people displaced by this latest conflict.

There are other conflicts that are going on, so it's a complex picture. But the main conflict now is between government forces or pro-government forces. And M23 and this major conflict has displaced basically millions of people over the last two years. And there's increasing violence. Amnesty, I think just a couple of days ago, published a report accusing both sides of using heavy weapons in densely packed areas.

civilian areas. So without regard to civilian casualties. And then, of course, in that region, because of the huge movements of populations due to this conflict, it's also become like the hotbed or the hub of the MPOC epidemic in the Congo. That's something that we have talked about on the podcast before. What

With all of these displaced people, where are they going and how are they living? They're mostly just moving within Congo. People are displaced from one part of North Kivu. They move to camps. In particular, actually, Goma has received large numbers of displaced people. There's also refugees into neighbouring countries like Uganda and Rwanda.

It's a really complex picture, as you say, lots of different groups fighting and very, very difficult for people on the ground. What's the international community saying about it? Well, there's been this perception that Rwanda benefits from this history and it's

its relations with Western countries. So it has a degree of cover, if you wish, for some of its actions in Eastern Congo. So this seems to me changing gradually. At the UN Security Council, the Western countries were

very critical and clearly blamed Rwanda for this latest upsurge of violence. We're still not yet at a stage where countries are willing to impose sanctions on Rwanda. I think also because many countries still think that Rwanda has legitimate concerns about what's going on in eastern Congo. Sam, thank you for coming on the podcast and explaining that. Thank you very much.

As the fighting continues in Goma, there are international calls for peace talks to end this escalation. And that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Hannah Gelbart. This is What In The World from the BBC World Service. Yoga is more than just exercise. It's the spiritual practice that millions swear by.

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