The States are weak, often corrupt and subject to a manifold of foreign players which nourish the crises.
At Goma in Nord Kivu, fear reigns. The troops of the movement M23 moved in supported by the Rwandese. There is no peace in this region counting 680.000 refugees, packed in the camps (and 180.000 more due to the new conflict), having a richness of minerals among them rare earths and coltan, 80% of the sources worldwide.
Many ask themselves whether it is the intention of the rebels to move up to Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, to overthrow the regime of President Tshisekedi. It is the trajectory of Laurent Désiré Kabila in 1997, when he destroyed the regime of Mobutu. At Goma, the Congolese army was dissolved: is that the preview of what will happen in the rest of the country, even though President Tshisekedi is calling for resistance?
What is happening in Kivu is not an exception in Africa. Is it a too forgotten continent? Years ago, the answer would have been a positive one to this question. Africa left alone to poverty, instability and exploitation. Today, the situation is more complex: Africa is “remembered” too well.
There are many players which operate on the continent in many ways: besides the Western countries, there are China, Turkey, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf countries, and others. In the face of strong interests, an African state is usually weak: because of the structural and political fragility but also due to of the kleptocratic ruling classes. Corruption is a widespread reality when handling big interests and in the everyday life of the citizens. In the African countries, which became independent from the colonial powers in the name of nationalism and often socialism, private life prevails today, not only in the economy.
There are non-governmental actors that put states in crisis and dominate vast regions: not only the M23, but the jihadist movements in the Sahara and the Sahel, or the ethnic ones. Then there are mercenary groups, like the Russians of Wagner. State coups are frequent. Implementing peace processes is not easy, because there are many players, often without ideological references.
Therefore, dialogue is rejected and there are those who rely only on weapons, as it is now happening in Sudan between the Sudanese armed forces and the so-called rapid support forces: 12 million displaced people and a humanitarian crisis of enormous dimensions. In Africa, there are more than 45 million displaced people, 3% of the population. What can be done? The big countries of the world do not intend to be the gendarmerie of Africa. Italy has launched the Mattei Plan and we hope it will be applied effectively.
Africans feel helpless. Since they are largely hostages of the situation.
Exactly at Goma, a young member of the Community of Sant’Egidio, Floribert Bwana Chui, was killed in that city in 2007. He was in charge of customs at the border with Ruanda. He refused to be corrupt and resisted to violent threads: a huge load of polluted rice was to pass the border, but Floribert did not give in and was brutally killed by the criminals to set an example so that it would not happen again. He refused to comply with one of the unwritten rules of the country: "do not believe that you are the one who can change the Congo".
To remember him is a message for the young Congolese and Africans, Pope Francis has recognised his martyrdom, and he was supposed to be beatified at Goma. But now there is the war, and it will not be possible to do it in Goma. Nevertheless, his memory speaks with a weak force which resists to evil.
Editorial by Andrea Riccardi in Famiglia Cristiana on 9/2/2025 - translation by staff
