The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, tried to negotiate the surrender of the M23 rebel group for one million dollars, but failed, reports the information site.
From October 2020 until the end of 2021, the Tshisekedi government hosted a delegation of senior members of the M23 rebel group in Kinshasa. Tasked with negotiating the terms of his surrender, former Deputy Prime Minister Gilbert Kankonde Malamba has requested a fund of USD 1.3 million to carry out his mission, the website recently reported. Africa Intelligencespecializing in African affairs.
Since the intensification, in April, of the clashes between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and the M23, the DRC government has closed the doors to any negotiation with the rebel group, which it has repeatedly described as a “terrorist” organization. The Félix Tshisekedi administration is now taking a hard line towards the M23, which already controls part of North Kivu and is advancing dangerously close to Goma, but from October 2020 until the end of 2021, a delegation of senior M23 members was present in Kinshasa for negotiations.
Their presence, which has been acknowledged by sources within the rebel group and by Rwandan officials, has never been confirmed or commented on by the Congolese government, but is corroborated in black and white in a letter sent to Tshisekedi on 2 February 2021 by Gilbert Kankonde Malamba, the then Deputy Prime Minister responsible for internal affairs and security.
Planned surrender of 6,000 M23 fighters
The document, cited by Africa Intelligencestates that this delegation that has been “present in Kinshasa since October 2020” and was, at the time, composed of three individuals, namely, the political advisor and spokesman for the movement, Lawrence Kanyuka, its security and intelligence officer, Bosco Mberabagabo , also known as Castro, and a third person, whose identity has not been confirmed.
In his letter, Kankonde claims to have established with them “a roadmap whose agreed result is the total surrender of regarding 6,000 M23 fighters”. To carry out this surrender, the former Deputy Prime Minister asked Tshisekedi for a nine-month extension and a budget of USD 1.3 million, in all likelihood to cover the logistical costs of demobilization and repatriation of the combatants.
Roadmap for Runiga’s splinter wing
The three men left the Congolese capital in late 2021, when the first clashes between the FARDC and M23 in the Rutshuru region were reported. The rebels claim that the talks failed, although the delegation did not set any conditions for their surrender. Contacted by Africa IntelligenceGilbert Kankonde did not respond to questions.
As soon as he took power in 2019, Tshisekedi sought to resolve the M23 issue and in July of that year he dispatched a delegation to Kigali to meet representatives of a dissident wing of the movement led by self-proclaimed “bishop” Jean-Marie Runiga, who is being held in Kibungo, in the neighboring Republic of Rwanda since he was ousted as head of the main movement in 2013. Talks between the two parties resulted in a roadmap signed on 28 October 2019 that stipulated an amnesty for M23 fighters, their repatriation to the RDC and its integration into the FARDC.
Since then, having exhausted virtually all channels of negotiation, the DRC government and the M23 movement have once more resorted to the use of force – at the risk of further threatening the fragile balance in the Great Lakes region.