M23 Rebels take the City of Goma in the Congo (Part 1)

A rebel group, known as the March 23 (M23) Movement, took the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the 20th of November 2012. This completed a military advance that had been going for couple of days since the 15th of November, when the M23 broke a 3 month long ceasefire and attacked the Congolese army in Kibumba (a city 30km north of Goma). The seizure of Goma by M23 threatens to massively destabilise the Congo, Rwanda (an alleged and almost certain backer of M23) and the wider region. To attempt to fathom this unfolding conflict the history of M23 must be examined, along with important contextual issues like state weakness in the Congo, friction between various ethnic and social groups, the role of natural resources in Congolese conflicts and crucially the wider geopolitical battle that rages just underneath the surface (especially with regards to conflict between Rwanda and the Congo, but also the role of Uganda, Western powers, the UN and the international community).

The M23 was rose largely from the ashes of a previous Congolese rebel group, the National Conflict for the Defence of the People (French: Congrès national pour la défense du peuple, CNDP). On March 23 2009 the CNDP signed a peace treaty with the government of the Congo, headed by Joseph Kabilia, who agreed to let the CNDP become a political in exchange for the release of jailed CNDP members. Also, it was agreed that CNDP members could be integrated into the Congo’s army (fully named the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; French: Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo [FARDC]). Yet, in April 2012 roughly 300 soldiers formerly of the CNDP broke away from the FARDC and started the M23 rebel group, citing poor conditions in the army and a belief that the government of the Congo generally did not fulfill its 2009 March 23 peace treaty obligations. Other possible grievances that could have motivated the formation of M23 are that CNDP soldiers who joined FARDC were deployed outside of Congo’s Kivu region (where CNDP were based and fought), the Congolese government called for Bosco Ntaganda’s arrest (nicknamed ‘the Terminator’, he was the commander of the CNDP. The ICC has demanded his arrest for human rights crimes since 2006), the inability of Congolese Tutsi refugees being able to return home to Rwanda and Kabila not winning the 2011 election in Congo legitimately (a grievance aired long after M23 was formed, shortly after Goma was captured). As Jason Stearns has said, ‘since the beginning of the M23 rebellion in late March [2012], the mutiny has appeared rushed and ill-planned’ (1). M23 were quite possibly formed more out of greed, a fear that their eastern Congo power structures and the wealth such structures ensured would be broken up, than grievances.