M23 rebels entrench their rule in east Congo even as Trump claims peace

Hundreds of men and women sat in rows in a wooden hall listening to the leader of Congo’s M23 rebellion at the end of a two-week re-education programme.

The rebel chief, Sultani Makenga, asked the students: Do they understand that only force can free their country from misrule by the government in Kinshasa?

“Yes, Commander,” they shouted in reply, a video of the event shows.

But they won’t be putting on fatigues. These new rebel “executives” comprise the civilian frontline in a campaign by M23 rebels to entrench a parallel administration across the tracts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo they seized in a lightning advance in January.

The course took place in September near the town of Rutshuru in Congo’s North Kivu province. There, the civilian attendees learnt the basics of handling weapons and did some military exercises.

But the focus, according to four trainees and an M23 charter document outlining the group’s doctrine, was more on Congo’s troubled history – and on how to build a new, federal state anchored in good governance, based on M23’s stated values of commitment, determination, sacrifice and discipline.

The 32-page M23 charter, which forms the basis of the civilian training course, has been circulated within the rebel group but hasn’t been previously reported.

“You have come here for training to understand why we’re leading this fight and what we need to do to free the country,” M23 commander Makenga told the students, speaking in an M23 video of the September 2 event. “We think you’ve taken that on board.”

The conflict in eastern Congo is one of eight wars US President Donald Trump says he has ended in less than a year.

At a signing ceremony hosted by Trump in Washington on December 4, Congo and Rwanda, which have long been accused of backing the rebels,

reaffirmed their commitment to peace.

US officials say Western companies could invest billions of dollars to extract Congo’s critical minerals once peace is secured.

The conflict isn’t settled, however. M23 isn’t a party to the pact that Congo and Rwanda signed. On Friday, a day after the meeting, heavy fighting continued on the ground in eastern Congo.

And as M23 takes part in separate peace talks led by Qatar in Doha, the group is tightening its grip on power, undermining the prospect of any real end to the fighting.

Under cover of the negotiations, M23 is effectively building a separate, self-sustaining government in the eastern part of Congo that has many characteristics of a fledgling state,_ Reuters_ has found.