Conflict porn and ‘fly by night’ journalism is not the panacea for DR Congo’s ills

On Saturday, The Times, the UK’s most prestigious broadsheet, rather unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) published an article that fell far below their own vaunted journalistic standards. I say ‘unfortunate’ because, as a newspaper of note, their audience would believe whatever it published; while I add ‘not unexpectantly’, because their reporting on our continent, and especially Central Africa, has not been stellar at all. The article, titled ‘Kill me, but let my sisters go: desperation amid escalating conflict in Congo’, written by Louise Callaghan, went out of its way to misreport, misinterpret and outrightly lie about not only the events happening in the eastern DR Congo, but also the root causes of the conflict. Maybe it was because Louise is a Middle East expert and not someone who knows enough about the region to report on it. Or, maybe it was because the newspaper’s editors were trying so hard to link domestic UK politics – the UK government’s asylum partnership with Rwanda – with the DR Congo conflict, that the need for a certain narrative – that is, Rwanda shouldn’t be allowed to partner with the UK on the illegal migrant issue – overwhelmed the need for fair, balanced coverage. Either way, and for whatever reason, the article was a hatchet job and, to be honest, an embarrassment. The entire article is grounded on the interview that Louise held with ‘Grace’, an internally displaced woman from Kitchanga, a small village that the M23 rebels captured on January 27. Grace, now living in sordid conditions in a camp on the outskirts of Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, recounts a tale of displacement, rape and gruesome murder. There was only one major problem with Grace’s testimony of her experience with the M23. As the journalist wrote, “it was impossible to verify the account.” So, if it was impossible to verify, then why was it published? And, as a sceptic, I was left wondering, ‘who gave her access to the refugees and put her in contact with Grace?’ It wouldn’t surprise me if the Congolese government coached the unfortunate woman and told her what to say. After all, none of her stories could be ‘verified’. The journalist wrote about the refugees living in squalor, but made no mention of the 80,000 plus Congolese – now in Rwanda - who’d been forced to flee their country over the last two decades. She wrote about Rwanda’s support for the M23 and then wrote “analysts attribute much of M23’s progress to ineptitude in the Congolese leadership and army.” Now, I was left with the question: why would Rwanda need to support them? Any kind of armed group, with a semblance of command and control, would have taken the Congolese army to the brink. Rwanda certainly did not need to get involved for M23 to take over the territory it now controls. Any finger pointing was a mere excuse. Emphasising this, French President Emmanuel Macron, noted in a speech during a state visit in Kinshasa, on Saturday, that since 1994 the Congolese state had “not been able to restore military, security or administrative sovereignty over its own territory.” The root causes of the conflict go far beyond the M23 rebellion. Most annoyingly, Louise refused to acknowledge the peace process that is currently in play. Not only did she ignore it, she even went as far as to say that Macron was attempting to “organize a ceasefire”. Anyone who knows anything about this process knows that it is the regional bodies – the EAC and ICGLR – that are at the forefront of the peace process. The regional peace process will not only address the M23 issue, but also the fate of thousands of Congolese refugees who’ve been living in camps in Rwanda and Uganda, the presence in DR Congo of the FDLR terrorists responsible for carrying out the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in addition to committing war crimes in the DR Congo, as well as Rwanda’s legitimate security concerns as a result of the numerous cross border incursions by the Congolese army-FDLR coalition. For Rwanda to attain its economic and human development goals, it needs a stable DR Congo. Rwanda, and its President, do not need to “grab more power and land.” That is why Rwanda joined regional countries in creating a road map for peace through the Nairobi process and the Luanda roadmap. The region understands that in order for there to be a peace process that holds, the root causes of the conflict need to be addressed in a truthful and transparent manner. Finger pointing and hysterical reporting have no place here. The writer is a socio-political commentator.

Opinions

Conflict porn and ‘fly by night’ journalism is not the panacea for DR Congo’s ills