Reliable news from Democratic Republic of Congo reaching our desk have it that the fighter jets that bombarded controlled areas of M23 rebel groups in Rutshuru Eastern Congo, last week, were hired from Belarus mercenaries. This is in total disregard of arms embargo.
While the Kinshasa government through its social media noisemakers made it look like the jets were assets of FARDC in exercise, apparently, to attack Rwanda, it turned out the military planes were borrowed from the Belarusian mercenaries with close ties to Wagner group.
The hiring of those unregistered warplanes was in total contraventions of the 2003 Security Council Resolution 1493 relating to armed embargo imposed on DRC, after different UN reports indicated the latter supplied arms to different armed groups comprised of blacklisted genocidal, terror outfit- FDLR, Mai Mai, Red Tabara, etc.
According to reliable sources, the fighter jets were supposed to be hired on hourly basis and were supposed to provide cover to a mobilized infantry and mechanized force, which did not go as planned. Belarusian pilots evacuated their jets to Kisangani far from the battle grounds in what they called unprofessionalism and laziness from FARDC. But besides that, how can the world look on as the Kinshasa regime breaks international laws?
Also, the Tshisekedi regime shows (with such activities) that it’s determined to escalate conflict rather than find solutions to its internal problems. It is intent on making the situation more chaotic in DRC.
It has been said before and it will always be repeated, DRC needs to look within itself and address internal problems before anything else.
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