Audio By Vocalize
Chuduku, traditional two-wheeled handmade vehicles, are pushed loaded with items belonging to internally displaced persons, as they leave the camps in Bulengo, on February 12, 2025. [AFP]
One of Africa's deadliest conflicts continues to drag on because Kinshasa is trapped in a dangerous illusion that 2012 can somehow be replayed. While the international community calls for dialogue, Kinshasa remains committed to a military script that has already failed, and is now failing again.
For context, Kinshasa has shown no willingness to make meaningful concessions to the AFC/M23. On paper, agreements have been reached, a ceasefire, a monitoring mechanism, and prisoner exchanges as confidence-building measures. Yet while the rebels have released prisoners and withdrawn from several areas at the request of the US, none of Kinshasa's corresponding commitments have been fulfilled.
Adding to this are the recent and ongoing ground and air offensives targeting the mineral-rich town of Rubaya and the Minembwe highlands. These deliberate military escalations reveal Kinshasa's true intentions: pursuing a military solution while everyone else advocates a political one. The conclusion is difficult to avoid: Kinshasa still sees the barrel of a gun as the only path to resolving this conflict.
