It would appear that the fragmentation of the great Democratic Republic of Congo is back on the agenda of the mighty.

It will not happen overnight and analysts will tread carefully around confirming it, but it seems to be the logical sequence and long term solution to many of the hindrances of regional integration and stability of the Great Lakes, Central, and East African regions and per extension, the African continent.

The identity crises of the Kinyarwanda speaking communities of this disputed region ( among other issues ) will not be resolved by a centralized government that does not understand their problem; prestigious posts in the army will not solve the problem as the mutiny and recent desertions of these Congolese continue to substantiate.

The truth is, the “EAST Congo issue” has been around for longer than DR Congo would like to admit, although it was always dealt with semi-seriously and swiftly swept under the rug; and understandably so; no one would want to see their country fragmented.

The issue of the significant mineral deposits also complicates things particularly since the two invasions of Congo that followed the fall of Kigali in 1994 and the subsequent fall of Marshall Mobutu.

It is an open secret that the possibility of this ” balkanization” has been the subject of discussions and lobbies at high levels.

I personally applaud Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo’s courageous condemnation of the conspiracy to yet again rob DR Congo and the Congolese of their right to weigh in on their nation’s destiny. Just as the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Catholic Church’s disapproval of the 2018 electoral process was suppressed, the good Cardinal’s outrage may fall on deaf ears but his stand against the never-ending cycle of the auctioning of His Eminence’s country to the highest bidder, irrespective of the suffering of the people of Congo is the sort of exemplary perspective that follows in the footsteps Dr. Denis Mukwege and Lumumba before them.

Noble Marara