06 11 13 on.ft.com- M23 rebels end uprising in Democratic Republic of Congo

Congolese officials announced they had scattered the rebels from
remaining hilltop redoubts after a night of intense fighting. The
M23’s leader, Bertrand Bisimwa, then called on rebel units to prepare
for “disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration on terms to be
agreed with the government of Congo”. He said the movement would now
pursue its fight through political channels.

The psychological significance of the moment was apparent in the
capital, Kinshasa, where witnesses said onlookers were breaking into
impromptu celebrations at the sight of passing soldiers, more often
feared for their predatory behaviour. A huge billboard was erected
near the city centre featuring a government soldier and the words
ekolo ya makasi, or “something strong”.

Congo’s army has rarely been known for its strength: it has not
claimed a significant victory on the nation’s many battlefields for as
long as most Congolese can remember.

In the 17 years since the first of many rebel groups marshalled by
neighbouring Rwanda began a campaign to overthrow the late dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko on the same eastern terrain, soldiers in the ragtag
national army have suffered defeat after defeat, most recently when
M23 rebels over-ran the regional capital, Goma.

The inability, until now, of UN-backed efforts to rehabilitate a
national army capable of establishing state authority has been central
to broader failures to revive the fortunes of the giant nation that
borders nine other African countries.

But the turnround over the past two weeks may be indicative of
shifting regional and international dynamics as much as a resurgent
Congolese army. Officials and analysts in the region caution that
stability is still a long way off.

Eastern Congo hosts a plethora of other, mostly smaller, militias and
rebel groups that thrive on the illegal exploitation of minerals, and
the M23 insurgency is only the latest in a series of rebellions
launched in the defence of ethnic Tutsi interests in the region.

“You must wait until evening to know that the day was good,” said a
veteran Congo analyst commenting on the significance of the army’s
recent victories.

These have come about, according to Congolese and other officials,
partly as a result of restructuring, including the removal from the
conflict zone of ageing and corrupt officers, and the involvement of
fresher, better-equipped forces recently trained by the US, Belgium
and China.

Backing from a new 3,000-strong intervention brigade, the FIB, made up
of African troops fighting under a UN mandate, also appears to have
been instrumental, together with a more robust military and political
lead taken by the UN peacekeeping force, Monusco.

Perhaps as decisive, however, was the role of neighbouring Rwanda,
which has persistently denied allegations by the UN and others that it
helped foment the M23 rebellion to further its own security and
economic interests in the region. Those denials have flown in the face
of a strong body of evidence, and sustained regional and international
pressure on President Paul Kagame’s government to halt cross border
support appears to have paid off.

Rebel and Congolese officials have yet to agree on the final terms of
a peace deal that could see some M23 fighters absorbed back into the
national army. However, for once it is the Kinshasa government that
has the stronger hand, following the success of the new collaboration
between the army and the UN forces.

“It will . . . send an important message to the DRC’s neighbours, who
have long taken advantage of the weakness of the Congolese army to
interfere at will, that the FIB is a significant military presence
that takes seriously its role of going after the armed groups,” said a
report by South Africa’s Institute of Security Studies.