DR Congo’s Tshisekedi: We are Building Powerful Armed Forces

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi has said his government is already building a formidable national army to defend Congo’s sovereignty.

“We have started a program to strengthen our defence and security,” said Tshisekedi this past weekend.

“We must have a country that is capable of taking charge of its own security because the main reason for our problems is our wealth,” he emphasised.

The President, who is facing an election in December, was addressing Congolese in the Diaspora in Brussels. 

The development comes amid heightened tensions between DRC and Rwanda over support of rival armed militant groups in DRC.

Kigali helps M23 rebels operating in eastern Congo while Kinshasa provides arms to FDLR, a militia group whose ideology and leaders are accused of committing genocide in Rwanda in 1994. 

Both governments deny the charges. 

ChimpReports understands that in the past one year, DRC has trained over 80,000 new soldiers who are now being deployed in eastern Congo to counter militia groups including M23 rebels. 

In November 2022, Tshisekedi directed the Chief of Staff to accelerate the establishment of training centres through the twenty six provinces in DRC for mass training of soldiers. 

Tshisekedi also appointed former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba as his defence Minister. 

Bemba immediately rushed to Indonesia where he bought modern military equipment and secured training slots of Congolese soldiers.

Tshisekedi further told the Congolese Diaspora that he would “continue his work to allow the DRC to regain control of its destiny.” 

Last year, DRC increased by 300 per cent its defence budget for 2023 to $1 billion with officials saying the move was aimed at “ramping up the power of the armed forces and to revamp military industry”.

The defence budget accounts for 10.4 percent of the total budget put at $14.6 billion.

In November 2022, Tshisekedi said the huge defence budget would enable DRC to determine the sequence and pace of operations or purchases to be carried out to achieve the Armed Forces’ specific objectives.

The defence budget covers acquisition of weapons and ammunition of war, logistics, and rehabilitation of military infrastructure, training and recruitment.

Congo also received military equipment from Turkey, just under three months after the UN arms embargo was lifted, enabling Congo to purchase weapons from the global market.

The UN notification system for sending arms to Congo ended on 20 December 2022.