In the week when Donald Trump showed Africa the middle finger by not inviting South Africa to the G20’s first meeting under the US presidency later this month, it was troubling to see two African leaders at the White House seeking solutions to African problems from America. And from a man who has shown disdain for our continent from the moment he first became president of the US. The US trip by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) president Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame reflects two African leaders who have been failed by their own turning to the West for salvation.
African leaders talk endlessly about African solutions for African problems. Tshisekedi and Kagame’s trip reflects leadership failure back home – an indictment on Africa and its leaders. The African Union (AU), the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have all failed to end the standoff between the DRC and Rwanda; hence, Tshisekedi and Kagame went to the US.
Rwanda wants the DRC to neutralise the genocide-accused rebel group FDLR, which operates in the eastern DRC, posing security threats to the neighbouring country. In return, Rwanda will remove its defensive measures on its border with DRC. That, in essence, is the peace deal Trump is supposed to rubber-stamp – a deal Africans would have been able to secure if they were serious about African solutions for African problems.
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How have the AU, EAC, and SADC failed to get the two leaders to commit to this peace deal, to the point that they are looking to the US for guarantees of peace and security? How do the three African bodies feel when they see their members crossing the Atlantic to look for solutions to problems in their backyard? Tshisekedi and Kagame have already been to Doha, Qatar, where they committed to peace. The DRC government and M23 signed a peace framework, but the agreement remains in limbo until all eight protocols are agreed upon.
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