So far, this year has been fraught with many events and politically or economically significant actions that have captured people’s interest and scorn. In this environment, I wish to discuss an event that, despite its impact on the region and people’s lives, has unfortunately gone unnoticed by many—the reignition of a conflict in Africa that has the potential to spill out into a wider war.
In late January 2025, a rebel group known as M23 launched another military campaign against the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and not for the first time. M23 has made gains during this campaign and has captured multiple capital cities of provinces and villages in North and South Kivu provinces. The area captured is in the minerally rich Eastern parts of the Congo and will likely be exploited for its mineral wealth. This is a common practice by many rebel groups in Central Africa, where they extract resources such as coltan and blood diamonds to then sell them to finance their political and military activities. It is highly likely that this is M23’s intention. M23, also known as the Congolese’s Liberation Army, got its name from the March 23 Movement and has been active for over a decade in the region. It has been alleged by multiple parties that M23 is receiving support from the Government of Rwanda in these attacks in the form of troops and weapons. The DRC has raised these issues, which the Government of Rwanda has denied, but the situation remains tense with other groups like Kabido joining M23 and the rebels still making advances.
I want to stress that this article does not give the full context for this conflict. This conflict results from issues and grievances that go back decades and are immensely complex, though I implore you to look into them as well as the ongoing conflict. What I want to stress is the further cost of human suffering this conflict is causing in an already tumultuous year. So far, thousands of innocents and combatants have been killed within holy places and hospitals. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs suspects that 100,000 people have been displaced due to the conflict.
Unfortunately, as of now, it seems like these numbers will only grow as there are concerns that this conflict will spill over and ignite other conflicts in the region as chaos and instability spread.