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.
Though it's hard to take the UN seriously when it comes to any geopolitical conflict, there is evidence to suggest that Rwanda is stealing enough Coltan from the Congo to accrue nearly $1 million USD per month in taxes on production and trade. This might not seem like much to most westerners, but the average salary of a Rwandan citizen is only 600 USD per month. It would seem that the Rwandan government is interested in the vast untapped mineral wealth of their larger neighbor.
The war has triggered rioting and looting across the DRC. UN officials have reports of refugees caravans, starvation, indiscriminate rape and dead bodies in the streets in Goma perpetrated by invading insurgents. US citizens have been advised to leave the region after US and European embassies were attacked.
Many in the Congo are criticizing the inaction of the African Union and the international community, calling for an intervention and a ceasefire. As usual, the internal strife of Africa is rarely solved by Africans alone. But the key mineral resources of the Congo as well as the growing involvement of China on the continent may be more than enough to garner western interest.
M23 has pledged to continue their "march of liberation" across the whole of the DRC to the capital city of Kinshasa.
It should be noted that Rwanda receives extensive foreign aid from the US though the USAID, an agency which is now shut down and under intense investigation by the Trump Administration for potential corruption and mismanagement of US tax dollars. In 2024 alone, the USAID gave over $170 million to the Rwandan government.
Though the chaos in the DRC has been occurring sporadically for decades, the most recent events run in tandem with the destabilization of South Africa and parts of Northern Africa. The last thing anyone wants is another genocide, but the only permanent solution may be the kind of "colonial" intrusion that the west has spent the past several decades apologizing for. There is also the issue of western involvement leading to greater problems. Certainly, the antics of the USAID are an example of this.
In the long run it may be better to cut off funding to everyone and stay out of the conflict entirely.
