A MARXIST PERSPECTIVE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO CRISIS

By Tenywa Joseph Micheal, Founder and President of the Global Peace Guild

The Congo crisis has dominated modern Scholarship on armed Conflict in Africa as well as national and international media. From the onset, the Congo war was set into motion and equally came to be characterized by partition and pillage; hence, even when terms like, Rwanda, Ttusi led-government or Kigali are continuously mentioned in the Congo crisis, it is largely covered up as partisan rhetoric. Such accusations have been documented by the local media, and the media of surrounding states as well as international reports such as the 2023 UN Group of Experts Report that was also backed up by the United States.[1] Irrespective of who the accused perpetrators of the Congo crisis, the undeniable fact that should move any rational and legal being are the gross human rights violations and a lack of peace in all its facets.

There are various legal theories that international law scholars have used to explain crises such as the one in Congo. The Marxist theory however, though wide and far reaching in various disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, Psychology, and only gaining attention in the study of international law, can help unearth the D.R. Congo crisis. Particularly, the Marxist perspectives can help us examine the historical materialism that has shaped the foundations of the Congo crisis and why the current day Easten DRC hollocaust remains a lucrative economic venture to a specific class. Consequently, the Marxist view lays bare the impact of class struggles in the Congo crisis and how the transnational capitalist class is in constant struggle with the transnational oppressed class. Finally, in the context of the Marxist view, we shall examine how the universal ideologies and the contemporary era of global imperialism bring an interplay between the logic of capital, logic of territory, logic of culture and the logic of nature to make the Easten DRC Holocaust an acceptable reality.

1. The Historical materialism in the Congo crisis

From a Marxist view point, the material conditions were the real foundation of the Congo conquest which set in motion the Congo crisis; hence, we cannot claim to understand the Congo crisis without the “historical-material” context. Just like other African societies that were being governed by traditional kings and chiefs, Congo was equally under the leadership of Kings. At the 1885 Berline Conference, the “Congo Free State” was taken over by Leopold II where it remained his personal property until 1908. Having commissioned Henry Morton Stanely to establish his authority, Stanely selected over 400 local chiefs with whom he negotiated treaties and these ensured King Leopold’s interests of controlling trade routes along the river Congo as well as the mineral resources through Central Africa. The heavily indebted King Leopold II transferred the Congo Free State to Belgium in 1908 where its name changed to ‘Belgium Congo’. The two phases were characterized by the brutish colonial legal order where land dispossession and the looting of every precious resource the colonialists set their foot on.

This was an era of primitive- accumulation where the producers were denied the means of production and all they could sell was their wage labour. The unspeakable imperial violence ushered in a phase of “extirpation, enslavement and entombment”.[2] Worst of all, there was gross human rights violations where millions of Congolese were slain by the colonial masters as the urge for material conditions superseded the humanity in them. Until today, states, capitalist organizations and individuals have extended and maintained their economic interests in the Eastern DRC by ensuring constant antagonism, manipulation, exploitation and expropriation. Precisely, the Congo crisis is largely a product of economic conditions; hence, ‘The War of Mineral Resources’.

The core problem with this reality is that the legal and political super structure relies on the material conditions of life, this means that the political class in the Congo, and the national and international law in the Congo have been facilitated by the national and transnational capitalist class. Whoever believes in creating lasting peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo must be open to the reality that many actors are motivated by the mineral wealth and not the plight of the Congo people. Being the wealthiest country in terms of mineral wealth, the capitalist players fight to efface all the traditional means of economic production and cultural organization by killing and displacement to ensure that it is a safe place for illegal production of minerals.

While as Rwanda had first attacked eastern Zaire in 1996, in 1998, Rwanda launched a second attack on Congo. Rwanda claimed that its aim was to create a zone in the DRC-Rwanda borderlands controlled by its troops. Many critics castigated Rwanda for ensuring control over Congo’s diamond mines where over 20,000 Rwandese troops controlled the Eastern Part of Congo. In 2001, Laurent Kabila president of Congo was assassinated by his guards and aids and his son Joseph Kabila assumed power[3]. Quoting the UN Panel of Experts, January 2001, Amnesty International held that “Unlike Rwanda, Uganda does not benefit directly from the resources exploitation in Congo”[4].

The preamble to the UN Security Counsel Resolution 2666 (2022) Adopted by the Security Council at its 9226th meeting, on 20 December 2022 Speaks volumes to the human rights violations in Congo;-

“… Expressing great concern over the humanitarian situation that has left an estimated 27 million Congolese in need of humanitarian assistance, and the growing number of internally displaced persons in the DRC, with 5.7 million estimated to have been displaced to date, and the 523,000 refugees in the DRC, as well as the more than 1 million refugees from the DRC in Africa as a result of ongoing hostilities…”[5].

March 23 Movement (M23) is one of the rebel groups that emerged in the early 2000s and Rwanda’s Support of M23 Rebels has remained a contentious issue. This rebel group is made up primarily of ethnic Tutsis and between 2012 and 2013, they became an undeniable force in eastern Congo. Under the mandate of the UN, the UN Security Council authorized a rare offensive brigade under the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) to support Congolese army in the fight leading to a defeat of the M23 rebels. However, in 2022, there was renewed tension between Congo and Rwanda and in July 2023, Congo accused Rwanda of Supporting the M23 rebels to destabilize Congo.[6] In February 2025, the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels launched several attacks gaining control of Eastern DRC province of South Kivu, Goma and Bukavu.

Additionally, Rwanda has been accused of having interests in internally displacing Congolese in the eastern DRC and annex the region for economic interests in the mineral wealth of Congo. Congo has claimed that Rwandan mineral smuggling costs it almost 1 billion US dollar per year.[7] In the December of 2023, the President of DRC Mr. Tshisekedi while addressing a rally in Bukavu, near the Rwandan boarder described the Rwandan President, Mr. Paul Kagame and compared him with Adolf Hitler.[8] This came after a series of accusations made by the Congolese president as to Rwanda’s hand in the Eastern DRC crisis. While as there remains a lack of proof for the legal responsibility of Rwanda, such accusations speak volumes to the victims of the crisis or those being accused. Such accusations may be pointers to growing hostilities and if they are ignored as mere rhetoric, efforts of building lasting peace in Congo may be futile. In February and March, the M23 rebel attacks on Congo have exposed Rwanda’s involvement in the Congo Crisis.

While as Rwanda is in the spotlight, a 2019 UN group of Experts Report notes that countries along the Eastern Boarder of Congo are regular conduits of gold smuggled in Congo worth billions of dollars. The report further noted that in 2019, 95% of the gold exported from Uganda worth 25 tones was not of Ugandan origin and it intimated that part of it is most likely to be from Congo. Interviewing the smugglers, the UN group of Experts avowed that Kampala was the main trading hub for gold from Ituri in Congo while the gold smuggled from South Kivu was going through Burundi, Rwanda, the United Arab Emirates, and Tanzania.[9] This leaves questions as to whether it would be logical and rational for such benefiting individuals and states to work for the restoration of lasting peace in Congo.

Away from African countries leveraging on the Eastern DRC holocaust, various studies have noted that the summation of the aid received in Africa and the foreign direct investment are way far below the money lost in illicit financial flows.[10] Mineral smuggling contributes towards the illicit financial flows as was attested to by a 2013 joint report between the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Global Financial Integrity which argued that

“The illicit hemorrhage of resources from Africa is about four times Africa’s current external debt”.[11] This fact defeats the traditional thinking that aid from the capitalist west has been flowing to Africa without direct returns. It is even more heartbreaking to note that even the East is fighting tooth and nail to ensure mineral smuggling from the African continent. In Congo alone, a 2014 report by the United Nations Security Council Group of Experts highlights that 98% of the gold exits the country through smuggling[12] where Europe based companies leverage on the precious mineral. Other countries are China, Russia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and other Asian Markets.[13] Worst of all, even terrorist organizations, rebel groups and state actors who benefit from the crisis are involved in mineral smuggling. This absolutely exhibits how the logic of capital has been central to the Eastern DRC holocaust.

• The Congo War as a Class Project

Marx set out that social relations can be best understood from the context of ‘historical materialism’ where material conditions of ‘man’s’ survival are the foundation. He sets the second premise that on top of the material conditions, social classes are the organizing principle of societies. Consequently, unveiling the social classes in and outside the Democratic Republic of Congo helps us uncover the logic of territory and logic of culture that has shaped the Congo crisis. From this perspective, all social relations keep changing since many may get to attain the means of production while those who cannot are left with no option but to survive on their labour power. Inferably, people live in a constant struggle either to maintain or rise their social class. In the same manner, D.R. Congo is not an exception to the class struggles and these have also contributed to the Congo crisis.

Bill Bowing, a Marxist scholar notes that due to class struggles, the law comes in not only to mediate but also to pacify and cement class struggles.[14] The class struggles in DR Congo have been made visible in local, uprisings such as the attack against the Banyamulenge, protest of Congo citizens against MONUSCO in July 2022 over its failure to stem violence. To this effect, the Congo crisis defies all known theories of civil war where it is difficult to draw a clear line between civilian and rebel, soldier and terrorist, state and non-state actors, while foreign actors appear to be as good as local actors. The M23 rebels attacks in February and March 2025 have been widely supported by the natives; hence, they appear to be serving the interests of the local people as opposed to the existing government. Worst of all, the various abbreviations of belligerents with diverse abbreviations, motives and fighting methodologies weave an unintelligible web of confusion in the Congo crisis. Consequently, class struggles between those abandoned to the peripheries of society and those tribes like the Banyamulenge who have been victims of several attacks are fighting for spaces and recognition.

A case in a point, the political class from leaders like Mobut Sese Seko, has continuously created a big divide with the electorate. Even amidst the crisis, there remains a big divide between the political class, the families that have been closer to power over the decades as well as the electorate and specific communities that feel abandoned to be pray to rebels and countless attacks with poor social amenities. This correlates with Clausewitz’s argument that “Politics, moreover, is the womb in which war develops… where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like the characteristics of living creatures in their embryos”[15]. From a historical perspective, the Mai Mai militia in Congo were a clear example of class struggles where the locals were training young men to defend their communities against intruders and the soldiers of Mobutu Sese Seko.

Until this day, the local militia often identified as the Mai Mai militia pedal several motives which relate to protection of the common goals of communities as potential victims though the actions of the Mai Mai cannot be sifted from the entire Congo crisis. Currently, the M23 rebel group is having stronger bonds with the people in Eastern DRC than with the bond between the people and the legitimate government. Rebels have often employed rape and sexual violence as weapons of war which escalates the Congo crisis. Worst of all, politicians from Banyamulenge neighboring ethnicities such as Bavira, Banyindu and Bafuliro together with the Mai Mai militia have often rallied their communities to segregate against the Banyamulenge. Since the 2017 Banyamulenge attacks, thousands of civilians and hundreds of Banyamulenge villages were attacked.[16] This has made the Congo crisis so complicated to be limited to specific theories of Western origin.

Conclusion

The Congo crisis has defied Western theories of civil war; hence, the need to consider several applicable theories. Karl Marx’s theory of historical materialism is one such theory that can be used to understand the politics of plunder in the DR Congo. This equally explains the interests of several players and states in the mineral rich eastern DR Congo. The never-ending conflicts in DR Congo create a conducive environment for illicit dealings which benefit individuals, multinational companies and states. This is equally coupled with class struggles where marginalized communities like the Banyamulenge have been victims of several genocidal attacks. In working towards lasting peace in DR Congo, it is paramount to give a key consideration to the mineral wealth in the Congo and the Class struggles.

[1] UN Panel of Experts Report 2023 available at https://docs.un.org/en/s/2023/431 accessed on January 2 2025

[2] Karl Marx, Capita; A Critique of Political Economy, Vol 1, Chapter Thirty-One; Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist (1868) available at https://www.marxist.org/archive/marx/works/1867-cl/ch31.htm accessed on July 3, 2024.

[3] Global Issues; Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues that Affect us all available at https://www.globalissues.org accessed on July 5^th 2024

[4] Our brothers who help kill us”-Economic exploitation and human Rights abuses in the East, Amnesty International Report, AFR 62/010/2003, July 1, 2003. Available at https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/amnesty/2003/en/39834 Accessed on March 05 2025

[5] UN Security Counsel Resolution 2666 (2022), S/RES/2666(2022) Adopted by the Security Council at its 9226th meeting, on 20 December 2022

[6] US Department of State, Press statement, Welcoming the African Union peace & Security council communique on Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Department of the spokes person, February 22, 2023, available at https://www.state.gov/welcoming-the-african-union-peace-and-security-council-communique-on-eastern-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/ accessed on July 25^th 2024

[7] DRC says Rwandan mineral smuggling costs it almost $1bn a year available at https://www.ft.com/content/ecf89818-949b-4de7-9e8a-89f119c23a69 accessed on July 28th 2024

[8] Dr. Congo President Tshisekedi compares Rwandan Counterpart Kagame to Hitler, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67669187?s=09 accessed on July 29^th 2024

[9] UN, Final Report of the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2019 available at https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/final-report-group-experts-democratic-republic-congo-s2019469 accessed on August 2nd 2024

[10] Hippolyte Fofack and Leone Ndikumane, Capital Flight Repatriation; Investigating its potential Gains for Sub-Sahara African Countries, 2008, available at https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Knowledge/30760492-FR-2.4.4-KF-REPATRIATION-FOFACK-AND-NDIKUMANA.PDF accessed on August 4th 2024

[11] Masimba Tafirenyika, Illicit Financial Flows from Africa; track it, stop it, get it, Published by the African Renewal, December 2013, available at https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2013/illicit-financial-flows-africa-track-it-stop-it-get-it accessed on August 5th 2024

[12] Sebastian Gratim, Insititute for Security Studies, 11^th January 2016, available at https://issafrica.org/iss-today/the-true-cost-of-mineral-smuggling-in-the-drc accessed on August 5th 2024.

[13] Just Castillo Iglesias, Conflict Minerals Regulation; Mapping International Initiatives and Challenges Ahead; Journal of Southern African Peace and Security Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1.

[14] Bill Bowring, ‘Marxist International Law Methodology’; In Rossana Deplano and Nicholas Tsagouries (eds.) Research Handbook on Methodologies of International Law (Edward Elgar 2021)

[15] Clausewitz, Carl Von, On War, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007, p.100.

[16] The Banyamulenge; how a minority ethnic group in DRC became the target of rebels- and its own government, available at https://theconversation.com/the-banyamulenge-how-a-minority-ethnic-group-in-the-drc-became-the-target-of-rebels-and-its-own-government-201099#:~:text=The%20Banyamulenge%20have%20been%20targeted,destruction%20of%20hundreds%20of%20villages. Accessed on August 10^th 2024