KIGALI, Rwanda

Four nations’ armies from the East African Community Regional Force (EAC-RF) on Friday announced an exit plan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after nearly a year of deployment in the country's east.

Following the DR Congo government's decision not to extend the current mandate of the force, which is set to expire on Friday, the East African Community (EAC) Chiefs of Defense Forces/Staff decided to discuss the modalities of the exit during an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday in Arusha, Tanzania, the military bloc said in a statement.

For nearly three decades, the eastern part of DR Congo has been plagued by violence from several armed groups, with thousands of people living in camps in the two most conflict-affected provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.

To support the restoration of peace and stability, military personnel from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and South Sudan were deployed in Nov. 2022 as part of the multinational EAC-RF force in the eastern DR Congo.

However, the deployment's future was later called into question after the country’s President Felix Thisekedi accused the force of cohabiting with the rebels rather than forcing them to lay down their arms.

The government in Kinshasa said the troops' mandate would not be extended beyond Dec. 8, 2023.

Earlier on Nov. 25, the East African Community announced that the DR Congo "would not renew the mandate of the regional force beyond December 8, 2023.”

The military chiefs upheld the decision of the government and “recommended to the EAC defence ministers that EAC-RF officially ceases its operations in eastern DR Congo with effect from Dec.8,” the statement said.

“Troop contributing countries are to commence the withdrawal of their forces from eastern Congo in line with the adopted exit plan,” it said.

Kenya has withdrawn 300 personnel and South Sudan will withdraw 287 by late Friday, according to the exit plan.

Burundi and Uganda will withdraw their forces and backload their equipment by road and air between Dec.8 and Jan.7, 2024.

Amid ongoing clashes between government forces and rebels in eastern DR Congo, the military chiefs urged the warring factions to cease hostilities so that peace talks could continue.

Besides the regional force, the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) has been deployed in eastern DR Congo since 1999.

However, President Tshisekedi has also expressed disappointment with the effectiveness of the heavily funded UN mission of about 15,000 peacekeepers in stemming violence.

The UN in 2020 also announced a phased withdrawal of its largest mission to begin in 2024. Anadolu Agency

Sixty years ago, a young nation was founded with so much optimism and much more promise. Poverty, disease and ignorance were declared our cardinal enemies.

We sang songs of freedom before cynicism and doubt crept in. As we reflect on the journey left by the past, we must also look hard into the future and ask ourselves, what should we do to prepare for a better future?

A country is as good as the institutions it erects and the leadership it bequeaths itself. This very moment presents us with an opportunity to genuinely and creatively forge a new republic out of the beautifully ragged mosaic that we have carved out of the last 60 years

The Kenyan nationalist movement suffered a massive blow when they started to view one another with suspicion on account of ethnicity and nothing else. Ethnic elites from smaller tribes allowed themselves to 'buy' the fear-peddling that the majority tribes would dominate them and even extinguish them. 

The collapse of the nationalist consensus remains the original sin for it is the basis upon which all other sins are built. The ethnic suspicion drove ideology and intellectualism out of the window. Leaders then mustered how to fuel ethnic nationalism as a ticket to the hallowed office of the people’s representative.

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We then turned our elections into an ethnic census, conveniently changing ethnic elites without changing fundamental values that would guide us to solve some of the big challenges impacting the lives of our people such as maternal health, teenage pregnancy, alcohol and substance use and radicalism, among others.

For example, the ODM ran on the platform of commitment to a new constitutional order in 2007. It branded itself the party of change. It bashed its opponents as anti-reformists. Then in 2022, the same party joined hands with the very core of what was its opposition in the 2007 elections but still ran largely on the same promises it peddled in 2007. Of greater interest is that ethnic elite alliances don’t last more than one electoral term. 

For those who may be privileged to listen to vernacular political songs, the heroes we praise in one song in one electoral season become the villains in the next. For example, those who jammed to 'Uhuru ni witu', a popular kikuyu song by Kamande wa Kioi in 2013, must have turned green with embarrassment during Uhuru’s second term when the Sagana series of meetings were being convened to ostracise the very man who had helped the community regain uthamaki after Kibaki’s 10 years.

So, essentially, the more things change, the more they remain the same. If you look at the 2007 elections and their dark undertones of 41 against one, then look at 2022 elections and the crème de la crème of ethnic elite mobilisation on one side of the political divide, then you begin to appreciate that, sometimes, it’s all a zero-sum game.

The refusal by the Opposition to congratulate the winners of the last election stems from the shock that someone who was out-mobilised on the ethnic elite front could build a massive grassroots support that could overrun the incumbency and all its privileges. 

It underscores a very pertinent point. The hunger for leadership that appreciates the attendant human cost to its decisions.

After years of conflation of private interests and public interests, something had to give in. The difficult task of rebuilding the economy requires a concerted effort and politics that appreciates what is at stake. I will dare say here that the disruptive demos earlier in the year achieved nothing more than raising negotiation stakes. If anything, they only added to the list of fatalities that the Uhuru-era inflicted on the people during the days of 'No Reform, No Election'.

To de-ethicise our civil service, we must de-ethicise our politics. That is the roadmap to a better future.By Kidi Mwaga, The Standard

 The French oil company TotalEnergies coerces and intimidates communities affected by the $5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline project in Tanzania and Uganda, a human rights organization said this week.

Residents along the 1,443-kilometer (870-mile) pipeline route are forced to accept inadequate compensation for their land, according to Global Witness, a human rights and environmental organization.

Global Witness accused TotalEnergies of collaborating with Tanzanian and Ugandan authorities to suppress efforts by communities seeking accurate compensation for land taken for the oil pipeline.

The pipeline route stretches from Tanzania's port city of Tanga to Lake Albert in Uganda. 

TotalEnergies has denied the allegations.

Neither country has commented on the report, but previous criticism, including that from Human Rights Watch and court cases against the displacement and abuses, has not stopped or affected the project.

The Global Witness report

Hanna Hindstrom, a senior investigator in the Global Witness land and environmental defender campaign, told VOA that TotalEnergies is directly involved in human rights violations.

"We found evidence suggesting that TotalEnergies, through its subsidiary, its contractors and partners, has been party to intimidation and bullying of community members affected by the project,'' Hindstrom said. ''Many people we spoke to say they were pressured into accepting compensation for their land and their property that they felt was too low as a result of a climate of fear in both countries.'' 

She said the company benefits from the authoritarian political environment in Tanzania and Uganda in which environmental defenders find it ''all but impossible to speak up against fossil fuel development."

Global Witness said it spoke to activists, experts, journalists and more than 200 people affected by the multibillion-dollar project.

Farmer Jealousy Mugisha, 51, is one of many people who said they are losing their land to pave the way for the pipeline.

The father of seven told VOA he lost his land twice. First, in 2017, when more than a dozen hectares were taken for a processing plant used as an oil collection point. Then, in 2019, he lost 2½ hectares in the pipeline route.

He refused any compensation offered to him, saying it was not enough.

"Our target is not that we want to sabotage a government program or oil project program,'' Mugisha said, ''but ... we need them to respect our rights. ... [People's] land was taken, and now they are suffering.'' 

He said, ''We need to get fair compensation, adequate compensation and promotive compensation. That is the only thing we are claiming."

Land use and compensation

According to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project, in the first phase of land acquisition, landowners could continue to use their land. The landowners said they were allowed to plant seasonal agricultural produce such as corn and sweet potatoes.

Further into the project, compensation to the evicted owners was calculated with a ''disturbance allowance'' and an increase to reflect the time elapsed since original surveys of the land, according to project documents.

Some landowners filed cases challenging the evictions and low compensation in a local court and a French court.

TotalEnergies has denied allegations they have intimidated anyone affected by the project. The oil firm says it has instituted numerous support mechanisms to ensure that those affected sign agreements only of their own free will.

The company also said it treats the people's concerns with the utmost seriousness.

Harassment and intimidation reported

Maxwell Atuhura, head of Tasha Research Institute in Uganda and an environmental activist, said he came under attack for challenging the pipeline project. ALLAfrica/VOA