Thabiso Scotch Mufambi
Harare – Southern Africa’s hard-earned reputation as the continent’s most stable region is under threat from the escalating security crises in the DRC and Mozambique.
In the past, swift SADC diplomatic and military interventions have helped ward off conflicts which had potential to destabilise the entire bloc.
For example, the 1998 military intervention in the DRC, although primarily meant to safeguard the territorial integrity of that country from foreign aggression, was also meant to protect regional peace and stability.
Subsequent diplomatic interventions in the early 2000s also helped usher in a period of peace and an element of order in the DRC, which allowed it to hold democratic elections in 2006 and ensuing years.
But observers have pointed out that SADC did not comprehensively follow through in the DRC, and the chaos in that country has been allowed to flare up once more.
Now SADC is faced with the challenge of once more dealing with the instability in its largest member state, while also avoiding another DRC-like crisis in Mozambique.
State of Siege
Last week, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi declared a “state of siege” following a surge in violence in the Ituri and North Kivu provinces, where armed attacks have resulted in the deaths of more than 300 people this year alone.
Government spokesperson Mr Patrick Muyaya said: “The objective is to swiftly end the insecurity which is killing our fellow citizens in that part of the country on a daily basis.”
Under the DRC’s constitution, the president can declare a state of either siege or emergency “if severe circumstances immediately threaten the independence or integrity of the national territory, or if they interrupt the regular functioning of institutions”.
Since gaining Independence from Belgium in 1960, the vast mineral-rich country – whose asset base includes cobalt, coltan, gold and diamonds – has been a theatre of conflict as different local and foreign groups battle to control its wealth.
Dubbed one of the most complex conflicts in Africa, the DRCs instability often connects political, economic, institutional, social and security factors into one intractable and complicated web.
Dozens of armed groups of varying sizes operate in eastern DRC, many a legacy of previous wars and the offspring of foreign funding.
The Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group of Ugandan origin, is believed to be responsible for much of the recent violence which saw over 800 people being killed last year.
According to UNICEF, the recent violence has fuelled a humanitarian crisis with more than 1.6 million people displaced in Ituri alone out of a total population of 5.7 million people.
While the DRC conflict has badly reflected security vulnerabilities in that country as Kinshasa continues to struggle to assert its authority in the restive parts of that country, it has also exposed SADC’s weaknesses in sustaining its interventions to provide lasting peace.
Although various forms of interventions by various actors including the United Nations, the African Union and SADC over the past three decades, have allowed the DRC, at some periods, to record important milestones in its peace efforts, the escalation of armed violence has necessitated the need for renewed commitment and a review of intervention strategies by Kinshasa and SADC respectively.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who visited Ituri and North Kivu last month, called for increased international support for the DRC.
“We need greater commitment and solidarity with this country,” he said.
The DRC conflict, which has shown its potential negative impact on regional peace and stability, requires concerted regional efforts towards finding sustainable peace.
The DRC is bordered by nine countries: Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
The longer the DRC conflict persists, the higher at risk neighbouring countries and Southern Africa remain are of potential conflict spill-overs.
Compounding the DRC headache is the growing crisis in Mozambique, which was allowed to fester from 2017 and exploded in 2020.
Over the course of three years, the armed insurgents have launched dozens of attacks across Cabo Delgado Province, most recently pillaging the town of Palma, where they upped the civilian death toll.
The attacks, in Cabo Delgado – where billions of dollars are being sunk to develop huge offshore gas projects – have left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands others displaced.
Mozambique’s attitude towards the crisis, pointing to seeming reluctance to secure regional military assistance, has not helped matters.
For a long time, Mozambique downplayed the gravity of the situation and SADC, as such, could not really move in to assist in any way.
SADC legal frameworks provide for a military intervention in cases of intrastate conflict such as the one ongoing in Cabo Delgado, but this remains subject to approval by Mozambique which reportedly sees SADC military assistance, if not entirely out of the question, as a last resort.
According to Article Six of the SADC Mutual Defence Pact; “An armed attack against a State Party shall be considered a threat to regional peace and security and such attack shall be met with immediate collective action.”