As Millions Face Displacement in DR Congo War, Catholic Peace Entity Expresses Concern over Looming Refugee Crisis

She added, “This war, if it doesn't end, will strain DRC’s neighbours badly.”

A report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has already identified DRC as the country of origin of the second largest number of refugees in Africa, coming only after South Sudan. According to the report, by 2020, more than 900,000 refugees originated from DRC and were living in other countries.

People have been fleeing armed clashes in the Eastern part of DRC ever since the January 27 takeover of Goma, the capital of DRC’s Eastern Province, by the M23 rebels. The numbers of those displaced continued to surge with the February 16 capture of Bukavu, the second-largest city of Eastern DRC.

And with the announced decision by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to withdraw its troops from DRC’s warzones, many more people are likely to cross borders in search of safety, according to Ms. Tloubatla.

Over the decades of instability in DRC, the hundreds of thousands fleeing the country are said to end up in Uganda, South Africa, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia and Angola. At the beginning of this year, approximately 487,000 Congolese reportedly sought refuge in Uganda alone.  

In the March 17 interview with ACI Africa, the DHPI official expressed concern that the regional as well as the international community is not doing enough in terms of intervention in the ongoing Congolese crisis. 

Ms. Tloubatla however clarified that “hands are tied” for most countries that may be willing to intervene in the crisis. Some, she observed, are just worn out, and can no longer come up with ways to help the embattled country.

“There is some level of fatigue for most countries that are concerned about the Congolese war because this is a conflict that has been going on for 30 years. During that time, there have been a lot of summits, a lot of attempts for talks, but nothing seems to be providing a lasting solution to the conflict,” Ms. Tloubatla told ACI Africa. 

She emphasized, “The international community is fatigued by the never-ending situation of the DRC. Could they do more? Yes. But I feel that at this point, nobody knows what exactly they can do.”

“Everybody’s hands are tied,” the peace researcher said, and added, “It seems that the country itself does not want to be united.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Tloubatla has expressed another fear that the ongoing violent conflict in DRC may evolve into a Great Lakes “war” should it not be stopped.

“We fear that we may have a Great Lakes War should the situation keep as it is,” Ms. Tloubatla said, echoing the sentiments of  Caritas Internationalis (CI) that warned at the beginning of March that the Congolese violent conflict risked spreading to the entire nation and even becoming regional should there be no immediate intervention.

“If there is no permanent stability in DRC, we might end up with the Great Lakes war because we have DRC that has been unstable, Rwanda that is continuously fermenting the chaos in DRC, and we also have Uganda which is coming behind and very slyly supporting Rwanda,” she said, making reference to mounting concerns about the increasing Ugandan presence in DRC.

She added, “The only person that has openly shown he is supporting Rwanda’s invasion of DRC is President Yoweri Museveni’s son.”

Ms. Tloubatla foresaw a situation where “two (Uganda and Rwanda) external forces come up as a unified force into a civil war situation.”

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If left unaddressed, she said, the Congolese war would evolve into what she described as “random sporadic groupings within DRC”, and the Central African nation being "split up into a civil war situation.”

DHPI has had a relationship with Caritas Goma in DRC for a number of years. 

The peace entity of the SACBC has always kept track of the conflict in the country through the years, Ms. Tloubatla said, and added, “When the fighting resumed in January, we responded to it because it is an area of interest to us.” 

“We have been keeping track of what is happening in the region, whether or not there is a clear contest for minerals in DRC, as well as who stands to benefit from the war, whether or not it is a purely political situation or still, whether there is something else at play in the conflict,” the DHPI official told ACI Africa.

She said that DHPI has been investigating whether or not the reasons behind the instability in DRC are logical. “We ask ourselves, are some people using politics, religion, or whatever it is at play as a smokescreen to conceal something else that people can’t see?”

Ms. Tloubatla found it baffling that Rwanda, which has been part of the peacekeeping mission in the embattled DRC, could be involved in fueling the conflict.

“On the one hand, Rwanda is part of the peace-keeping efforts in DRC, maybe for its soldiers to be paid, and on the other hand, it is arming the rebels,” she said, and noted that one of the reasons that she thought Rwanda would want to be “on both sides of the table” in the Congolese conflict is because the country believes that some of its people are in the East of DRC. 

Additionally, Eastern DRC has one of the largest coltan deposits in the world, and Rwanda wants to continue accessing the mines, the DHPI official said, and added, “It would be beneficial for Rwanda to continue arming the M23, to continue having a situation of instability in the region so as to access these minerals cheaply.”

She sent out an appeal to parties involved in the Congolese violent conflict to down their weapons, saying, “At DHPI, we call for rational thought. We appeal to leaders to make choices based on the good of the people they are serving and not based on their narrow interests.”

“May those fighting experience conversion and put God at the centre of their actions,” the official of SACBC’s peace entity said, and added, “Today (March 17) is St. Patrick's Day. St. Patrick prayed, ‘Christ before me, Christ behind me’. With this prayer, the people involved in this conflict can hopefully see God in His creation.”

“By seeing Christ in the next person, let those fighting lay down whatever anger and aggression they have so that they can all live in peace,” Ms. Tloubatla implored.