After years of relative quiet, conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo and its much smaller neighbor Rwanda struck yet again in 2021 while the world was distracted by the global covid pandemic. Fighting has continued to escalate as an insurgent group called “M23”, which is backed by the government of Rwanda, continues cross-border raids and has expanded into the neighboring province of South Kivu. They now claim to have encircled and taken the key city of Goma.
Though Rwanda’s total population is 14 million compared to the DRC’s 102 million, Rwanda has been purchasing advanced weaponry from China since at least 2018, including man-portable anti-tank missiles, ground to air missiles, anti-ship missiles, armored vehicles and artillery. Congo rebels like the M23 group have been caught transporting such weapons and moving back and forth over the Rwandan border.
Though there are a host of ethnic and political grievances between the various tribes of the Congo region (the Rwandan genocide of 1994 still reverberates to this day), the current conflict appears to lean more towards control of resources. The Congo exports 40% of the global Coltan supply and is also suspected to have the world’s largest lithium deposits. Coltan is a Rare Earth metal vital in the production of high end electronics and weapons systems.
International interests including the UN assert that Rwanda is using the M23 rebels as a proxy to obtain mineral rich territory in the DRC. They estimate that between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan army troops are on the ground in DR Congo in support of M23 – based on authenticated photographs, drone footage, video recordings, testimonies and intelligence.
Hellbound and Down 