Namibia has no immediate plan to get involved in DRC conflict

NAMIBIA has yet to discuss whether to come to the aid of the Democratic Republic of Congo if the central African country were to clash again with Rwanda as happened in the late 1990’s.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Nangolo Mbumba yesterday shot down queries about a possible Namibian involvement in any conflict on the side of the DRC as speculation. “We have pulled out of there.We have nothing to do with the Congo.There is definitely no consideration” at the moment that Namibia will become involved, Mbumba told The Namibian yesterday.Reports of a troop build-up in the eastern Congo along the border with Rwanda have caused tensions to rise over the past few weeks, shaking the precarious peace that has prevailed between the neighbours.Their governments have been at odds since the last genocide of mainly the Tutsi minority in 1994.Rwanda has invaded the DRC twice, in 1996 and 1998, accusing the government of assassinated President Laurent Desiré Kabila of helping Interahamwe rebels who were responsible for the genocide.Namibia clandestinely sent troops to the DRC together with Angola and Zimbabwe in 1998 to shore up Kabila against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.The allies argued that the move was part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) pact.SADC has an agreement that allows members to protect each other’s governments against being overthrown violently.But their involvement in the war, which eventually sucked in six countries, was roundly criticised in Namibia and abroad and received no official backing from SADC.The Reuters news agency last week reported that Southern African countries would send a mission to assess the security threats that Rwanda made when it accused the DRC government of not only supporting fresh Interahamwe invasions but also of massing troops along the border.The SADC committee on Politics, Defence and Security was expected in the DRC last weekend to ask President Joseph Kabila’s government what help it may need from fellow SADC members and to visit neighbouring countries.Mbumba appeared annoyed by the inquiry about possible Namibian involvement, asking: “Why speculate?” He said Namibia had previously been invited by the Congolese government and that the matter had not yet come up for discussions.”We have pulled out of there.We have nothing to do with the Congo.There is definitely no consideration” at the moment that Namibia will become involved, Mbumba told The Namibian yesterday.Reports of a troop build-up in the eastern Congo along the border with Rwanda have caused tensions to rise over the past few weeks, shaking the precarious peace that has prevailed between the neighbours.Their governments have been at odds since the last genocide of mainly the Tutsi minority in 1994.Rwanda has invaded the DRC twice, in 1996 and 1998, accusing the government of assassinated President Laurent Desiré Kabila of helping Interahamwe rebels who were responsible for the genocide.Namibia clandestinely sent troops to the DRC together with Angola and Zimbabwe in 1998 to shore up Kabila against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.The allies argued that the move was part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) pact.SADC has an agreement that allows members to protect each other’s governments against being overthrown violently.But their involvement in the war, which eventually sucked in six countries, was roundly criticised in Namibia and abroad and received no official backing from SADC.The Reuters news agency last week reported that Southern African countries would send a mission to assess the security threats that Rwanda made when it accused the DRC government of not only supporting fresh Interahamwe invasions but also of massing troops along the border.The SADC committee on Politics, Defence and Security was expected in the DRC last weekend to ask President Joseph Kabila’s government what help it may need from fellow SADC members and to visit neighbouring countries.Mbumba appeared annoyed by the inquiry about possible Namibian involvement, asking: “Why speculate?” He said Namibia had previously been invited by the Congolese government and that the matter had not yet come up for discussions.