Dr Denis Mukwege, the Nobel prize-winning surgeon, said, “We can see very clearly that this politics of double standards is undermining the credibility of the international, multilateral system. I’m sorry to say that this sort of flexible humanism is frustrating young Africans,” said Mukwege, comparing the huge international response to the war in Ukraine with the muted references to the “totally forgotten” DRC.
He warned western diplomatic inertia was already boosting support among many young Africans for the old foe of western imperialism. “At protests now they are flying the Russian flag,” he said. “Now, I do not think that Russia is a solution … but there really is a lack of trust among Africans at the moment in the policies pursued by many European countries.”
Mukwege said colleagues in North Kivu hospitals were seeing the number of patients, including rape victims, “increasing significantly”. He had recently been in a camp for internally displaced people near Goma, where he said teenage girls were living “in a state of constant fear due to the fact that at any moment they risk being destroyed by people who view them as game … to be hunted”.
Ever since M23 took up arms in late 2021, scrutiny of its alleged links with neighbouring Rwanda has returned. In August the UN said it had “solid evidence” that Rwandan troops had been fighting alongside M23.
“The US have got proof … UN experts have got proof,” said Mukwege. “So the question is: what is the west waiting for to sanction Rwanda for the crimes against humanity that are being committed, these serious violations of human rights?” adding: “I believe that recognising that Rwanda is supporting M23, which is a terrorist group that kills, rapes and destroys the population, has to be followed by sanctions.”
Mukwege said he suspected many western countries were reluctant to act for fear of harming their economic interests in DRC, one of the most mineral-rich countries in Africa and the world’s leading supplier of cobalt – crucial for making smartphones and electric vehicles.
“Why can’t we do things differently?” he said. “Create business links that would allow Congolese people to live in peace and mining companies to do their work in a win-win relationship … there is no need to go back to the 19th century, to the time of Leopold II, to have mobile phones or car batteries.”
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