So the president went to Kyiv and St Petersburg on a forlorn peace mission. Both Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin declined to implement a ceasefire, and no-one was particularly surprised.
The mission was an absolute farce, and not because President Cyril Ramaphosa’s excessively large and exceptionally well-armed security detail and a bunch of journalists ended up getting stuck on a Polish runway. That was actually a surprise.
The mission was a tragic farce for three reasons: the composition of the delegation, the diplomatic effort being focused on the wrong war, and because Ramaphosa should have gone to a different country.
The presidents of Senegal, Zambia and the Union of the Comoros joined Ramaphosa on the peace mission, while the Republic of Congo and Uganda sent top envoys representing their presidents, and Egypt’s prime minister filled in for president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. And it is here where the real mockery of peace starts.
In December 2022 Sisi unilaterally declared that thousands of kilometres of Libya’s maritime zone belonged to Egypt. Incidentally, the area acquired is thought to contain considerable natural gas fields. Both sides in the continuing Libyan civil war protested against the move, a reasonable position given that Sisi was illegally annexing the territory of a sovereign state.
President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo is likewise not exactly committed to the principles of conflict resolution through dialogue. He was part of the 1968 military coup that overthrew then president Alphonse Massamba-Debat and installed Marien Ngouabi in his place.
Nguesso has long been rumoured to have been involved in the 1977 assassination of Ngouabi. Two years later, the military council running the Republic of Congo chose Nguesso to be president.
In 1992, the Republic of Congo transitioned to multiparty elections and Nguesso was voted out. Civil war broke out in 1997. Supported by Angolan and Chadian forces, Nguesso’s Cobra militia prevailed after two-and-a-half years of bloodshed. He has been in power ever since.
The man who used us children to fight his bush war, stripped us of our humanity to do it, and then wanted to get rid of us, those few who survived.
— Kassim Kiggundu, child soldier
President Azali Assoumani of the Union of Comoros came to power in a 1999 military coup, the 18th coup since independence in 1975. At the time, the justification was that negotiations with the autonomous island of Anjouan, which had declared independence from Comoros in 1997, were leading to even greater autonomy or recognised independence.
Separatism in Anjouan finally ended in 2008 when soldiers from the AU and Comoros invaded and removed Anjouan’s autocratic president, Col Mohammed Bacar.
The history above is absurd enough, but with Uganda’s inclusion the peace mission went from farce to the laundering of brutal aggression. President Yoweri Museveni is an architect of war. He has been at it since 1971, when his Front for National Salvation started fighting the Idi Amin regime.
After the overthrow of Amin, which was largely the work of the Tanzanian army, there was a general election in 1980. When his party got just 4.12% of the vote Museveni launched the Ugandan bush war, in which up to half a million people were killed. When he achieved victory in 1986 Uganda was his and has remained so ever since.
Kassim Kiggundu, a child soldier in the bush war, was quoted in the New Internationalist: “The one truly responsible is him, Museveni, president of Uganda, leader of those rebels that abducted me. The man who used us children to fight his bush war, stripped us of our humanity to do it, and then wanted to get rid of us, those few who survived.”
And Museveni has not stopped fighting. Uganda was a full-on belligerent in the First Congo War (1996-97), Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s rebellion against Mobutu Sese Seko. When Kabila asked foreign troops to leave the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame armed the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy.
Cataclysm
The Second Congo War (1998-2003) was born, eventually sucking in nine African countries and involving about 25 armed groups. In the craziness, Rwanda and Uganda even had their own war within the conflict, the Six-Day War.
About 5.4-million people died in the Second Congo War and its aftermath. And Museveni still has not stopped. Among other military operations his forces are currently pursuing Ugandan Islamist insurgents, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), in the east of the DRC. Regardless of the ADF’s terrorism, Museveni cannot end the conflicts in his own country. Peace is not in his nature.
Quite possibly an event of cataclysmic proportions is about to happen: the Third Congo War. Rwanda is alleged to be backing the M23 rebels in North Kivu. The DRC says both Rwanda and M23 are planning to attack Goma soon. Roughly speaking, 120 armed groups are operating in the eastern DRC.
Kenya, Burundi, South Sudan and Angola have sent in troops. Mercenaries predate, with refugees being desperately driven this way and that. Nor is this some small arms war: rockets, armoured personnel carriers, fighter jets and drones are deployed. The situation is so bad that the Southern African Development Community troika, with Ramaphosa playing a significant role, decided in May to send in troops. Because, you know, what’s needed in the DRC right now is more guns.
Sexual exploitation
The UN “stabilisation mission” in the DRC, dubbed Monusco, to which SA has long been a contributor of troops, is throwing in the towel. Not that UN peacekeepers did a great job, often being accused of rape and other forms of sexual exploitation. Quite obviously they have not done anything about the violence. Nor is Monusco particularly wanted by the Congolese. Protesters burnt down Monusco offices across the country in 2022, killing four peacekeepers in the process.
An unholy hell is breaking loose in Central Africa, and Ramaphosa went to Russia, pointlessly involving himself in Europe’s war? There is no greater cause in Sub-Saharan Africa right now than peace in the DRC, which would be difficult but achievable. Ramaphosa needs to at least try to stop the Third Congo War before it kicks off.
SA played a significant role in the Second Congo War’s peace agreements, such as the Pretoria Accord (2002) between the DRC and Rwanda. Former president Thabo Mbeki helped broker that deal, and now it is Ramaphosa’s turn to step up.
While the causes of the violence are complex, going back to the colonial era and the 1963 Simba uprising in the east, scores of innocent Africans are dying in the DRC right now. As things get worse, more deaths will come, and dismembered women and children.
Ramaphosa went to the wrong continent entirely. He needs to haul ass to Beijing. Of all the global powers China has the most sway in Central Africa. With President Xi Jinping’s support a terrible disaster might be averted. If SA has any juice left in the Brics bloc, now is the time to use it.
• Dr Taylor is a freelance journalist and photographer. He is also a research fellow in environmental ethics at Stellenbosch University.
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