COMMENT: Are We About To Witness The Bloodiest War Ever?

Article by Christopher Lee, Defence Analyst. 

The Congo War (1998-2003) left more civilians dead than Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Syria.

The death count was in the millions. The bodies were shoveled aside and the war continued along to another atrocity. It is on its way back.

It began when the Congo was ruled by Mobutu Sese Seko who was, tacitly or directly, supported in power by countries like the UK because he promised to halt Soviet advances into the continent.

He ruled cruelly and ruthlessly from 1965 to 1997 as he stripped his nation of every asset and most of the financial revenues.

Next door, in 1994, Rwanda became a state of unspeakable genocide as the people were literally, raped, dismembered and the supposedly fortunate ones slaughtered.

Millions were left in the ditch of African uncompromising killing.

The killers, threatened with retribution drove into Congo. 

The Rwandans followed them and replaced Mobuto as leader with one of their own, Laurent Kabila.

The only loyalty in African warfare is victory.

Kabila, an opportunist, and insecure in his leadership – a dangerous villainy – abandoned the Rwandan king makers and so the war, with Angloa and Zimbabwe protecting Kabila, stormed on in an unrestricted madness of terror, slaughter and retribution largely fuelled by the unimaginable riches of the Congo.

It was a war for revenge, gold and diamonds. The war continued and denied perhaps half of 26 provinces of any security and any hope of peace.

And now? The discontent and insecurities are showing and historically when they do, the strong men seek an opportunity to escape invasion or to take part in invasion going the other way.

The riches are still there. The plunder is still a daily service of pluralist unlawfulness.

Kabila was shot in 2001 and his son Joseph Kabila took his place. 

His presidency ran out last year. He refused to go and he is ignoring that constitutional nicety and looks like refusing to hold elections as scheduled this year. 

Africa is an adventure playground of the mocking of democracy as a western weakness.

This is all the stuff of a new warfare without much hope of the UN preventing it.

If we are on the road to war, then there has to be a go-between, someone who can be seen as neutral and with whom it is in African terms smart to seek peace.

That man is the new leader of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa. He is a man of enormous trust. 

But President Kabila has a different definition of trust than most.

The United Nations Security Council and the African Union has to find strength for Mr Ramaphosa. 

Mr Kabila is not looking for a Nobel Peace Prize. He will cling to his own prize, Office.

The other option is a reversal to warfare without rules other than winning.