Congo Speculation Comes True

Two days after I wrote that Tutsi rebels under the command of General Bosco Ntaganda might be making a deal with Joseph Kabila's government, my speculation came to pass. According to Reuters, Ntaganda's faction of the CNDP announced their willingness to join Rwandan and DRC armed forces to battle the Hutu FDLR, remnants of the Hutu Interahamwe who fled to Congo following the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Ntaganda's spokesman, Colonel Esaie Munyakazi, made the announcement in Goma while the Congolese interior minister and Rwanda's top armed forces commander looked on. He added that they were willing to fight alongside the FARDC "with a view to them being reintegrated into the national army."

The great unknown in this situation is where the erstwhile leader of the CNDP, Laurent Nkunda, fits into the puzzle. As of this writing, there has been no reaction from his camp.

About two weeks ago, Ntaganda announced that he and his officers had deposed Nkunda and were now in charge of the rebel army. Denials were issued and not much seemed to have changed, with even representatives of Kabila's government meeting with Nkunda's delegation to the UN-sponsored negotiations in Nairobi while the UN's chief negotiator, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, met with Nkunda.

Shifting alliances are nothing new in the Democratic Republic of Congo, so it's not likely that Ntaganda's announcement is the end of the story.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.