Today, Explained - Chaos in Congo

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is at war. Again. Sixty-five years of mismanagement began with a CIA assassination plot that condemned millions of Congolese to unending conflict. This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Miles Bryan, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Rebel soldiers with a group called M23 who have taken control of the Congolese city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo by MICHEL LUNANGA/AFP via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a large and beautiful country in central Africa. On its east it borders Rwanda, and right now a rebel group called M23 is on a rampage in Congo after capturing the Congolese city of Goma. The morgues in Goma are overflowing. We can't go on like this. Mothers of raped, killed. When will this end? Until when? Aid agencies are struggling too.

Their warehouses in Goma were looted. The men of M23 have been at this on and off for years now. Congo is always on edge. Civilians have to flee these M23 incursions, leaving their homes again and again and again to escape this campaign of killing and rape. So who is funding and arming M23?

It is Rwanda. Coming up on Today Explained, why everyone, including the United States, won't stop messing around in Congo. This isn't your grandpa's finance podcast. It's Vivian Tiu, Your Rich BFF and host of the Net Worth and Chill podcast. This is money talk that's actually fun, actually relatable, and will actually make you money. I'm breaking down investments, side hustles and wealth strategies. No boring spreadsheets, just real talk that'll have you leveling up your financial game.

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This is Today Explained. I'm Noelle King with Michaela Rong. Michaela has been writing about Rwanda and Congo for three decades and is author of the books Do Not Disturb and In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz. Michaela, what is M23 exactly? Well, the M23 describe themselves as Congolese Tutsis, members of this ethnic group who are the Tutsis. A small group of army mutineers has turned into a powerful rebel force. Our objective is Congo. We are fighting for Congo. These were fighters who used to be part of the Congolese army.

They staged a mutiny. They were not happy with the way the Congolese army was being run, with the way their rights were being sort of observed and respected. And they launched a mutiny and have been a problem in that area for quite some time. The issue is that although they describe themselves as Congolese Tutsis, they get weapons, they get funding, they get uniforms, and they take orders from neighboring Rwanda, this tiny little country on the east of Congo.

And what they've been doing is seizing land that is very fertile land, it's also very rich in minerals, and increasingly creating a very strong impression doing is seizing land that is very fertile land. It's also very rich in minerals and increasingly creating a very strong impression that really this is the land grab being stage managed by Rwanda, by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who has ambitions and designs on that part of eastern Congo. Many people in the West will know Rwanda as the country that 31 years ago experienced a terrible genocide. Underlying inter-tribal tensions have again exploded into violence as rebel forces from

the minority Tutsi tribe appear to be fighting the army dominated by the majority Hutus. A hundred-day killing spree that took one million lives. And then came back and became a very stable country, a place where tourists like to go and, you know, visit the gorillas, a place where I lived and worked there myself. You can find nice coffee shops, nice hotels. Why is Rwanda involved in its much bigger neighbor and trying to grab its land? Well, all those things you said about Rwanda are definitely true. And you can go up into the mountains and visit the gorillas, who are absolutely, you know, enchanting.

But Rwanda has this long history of intervening in eastern Congo. Back in 1997, a huge number of Hutu, they were from the Hutu ethnic group, the majority in Rwanda, they fled into Congo after the genocide when Paul Kagame's rebel group took over the country. Paul Kagame is a member of the Tutsi group. And the Hutus fled into Congo and then this ousted army and these ousted extremist militias who had staged the genocide of 1994, they were staging systematic raids into Rwanda, attacking buses, attacking schools, committing massacres, attacking refugee camps, and you know they were trying to win back power. But that was 30 years ago and that's no longer the situation. That group of extremists who had this genocidal agenda

is now estimated to be between 600 and 1,000 men. But what you will hear President Kagame saying constantly is I am justified to intervene in Congo because they represent an existential threat. And what's more, this nasty bunch of fighters would really like to wipe out Tutsis who live in Congo. All right. So Rwanda is the aggressor here, very clearly. That's been documented and

it's been documented for a long time. And yet Rwanda remains very popular with Western nations, including the United States. What is the relationship between the West and Rwanda right now? Well, I think it's changing. And I think it's partly changing because of what people are seeing happening in Goma right now. I think there's been a long period in which the West decided that Pulka Gami was a really impressive admittedly authoritarian leader, but somebody that they regard as a key ally in the Great Lakes, an area which has sort of been plagued by civil war, genocide,

killings, Ebola. I mean, you name it, it's happening in the Great Lakes. And so Paul Kagame has always been very clever, transmitting this image of himself as a man you can do business with and someone who gets things done. And one of his key calling cards is that he, as the head of this extremely efficient, very disciplined, well-armed, because he gets a lot of military aid from America and other Western allies, very effective army. And he has sort of said to the West, you know, I will be your policeman. I will be Africa's policeman.

I will send these peacekeepers around Africa to deal with the threat posed by Islamic jihadism, which has been cropping up here there and everywhere across Africa. So that has been one of the reasons why the West has been willing to turn a blind eye effectively to what he gets up to in Congo and this sort of obvious land grab that he is now making. I mean, it's a curious moment and I don't think it's coincidental that Kagame chose, you know, the moment where Washington is utterly obsessed with what Trump is doing and the incoming Trump administration, that he picked this particular moment for the M23 to launch its all-out attack on Goma. Because the US had already sort of frozen all its aid projects around the globe.

So Rwanda sort of in a way doesn't stand to lose anything from the US at the moment, because it may never have an aid relationship with the US again, irrespective of what's happening in Congo. I wonder about any groups outside of government. So one thing that Rwanda seems to be quite proud of is that it isn't just the darling of governments, but that cultural figures and sports figures all view it as kind of, you know, a very fine African country. What are you hearing about non-governmental actors reconsidering their relationship with Rwanda? I'm not sure that they're reconsidering, but I think they need to. What was quite interesting recently was to see the Congolese foreign minister writing, personally writing to Arsenal Football Club, soccer club, also writing

to Paris Saint-Germain, the soccer club in France, Bayern Munich in Germany and saying you really need to reconsider these sponsorship deals you have signed with Rwanda. Our call to action to all the stakeholders but in particular those countries that have been funding the Rwandan regime, is that this madness needs to stop. It's got a very close relationship with the National Basketball Association. So, do you have a favourite player in the NBA? Be careful now, Your Excellency.

I have favourite players. Players. Yes. It's also going to be the place where the World Cycling Championships are staged in September. Sports is one of the ways that Kagame has got his soft message out to the world that Rwanda is this miraculous country that has recovered from the genocide. And he uses those messages to sort of allay the reality, which is that it's a very repressive

country, not just in Congo, but at home, you know, where human rights activists and journalists end up either dead or in jail and the opposition can't campaign in the elections. So he's used sports for a very long time. And I really don't think that these sports organizations are sort of getting the message yet. One thing that is quite grim to consider is that, as you said, this is a conflict, the kind of parameters or outlines of which have been very much the same for 30 years.

And I wonder, 30 years later, 30 years into this, do you think that this could be a moment where enough of the eyes of the world take a really critical look at Rwanda and what it's been doing that there is renewed hope for Congo? I think the attention is really welcome because what we do know about Paul Kagame is he's very attuned to his branding, his reputation, his image in the West. It matters to him and he picks up the slightest nuance of when it's getting dented.

So I really welcome the new focus on Congo. I just hope that it is maintained because one of the problems with Congo, and it's always been the problem with Congo, is this is a complex history. And it is a history that is spattered with incidents and different episodes. And most disastrously, it's the acronym factor. The different acronyms of the rebel groups, who is a lie to who, who is behind who. And people's eyes just glaze over. And I really understand why that is.

But it is a part of the world where a little bit of Western pressure can really pay off. Michaela Wrong, she's the author of In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz and Do Not Disturb. The latter was the book I most recommended in 2022 to my friends and family, and I am very happy to recommend it to you. Coming up on Today Explained, a CIA assassination plot that derailed Congo for decades. You cannot make this stuff up. Support for the program comes from 1-800-Flowers. What do they do? Take a guess. Valentine's Day is coming up and you can let your special person know just how special

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Or watch us on YouTube. Like, subscribe, follow, all that good stuff. Let's get started. This is Today Explained. In the late 1950s, African countries were throwing off their colonial shackles and declaring independence. And the Africans who led these movements were very brave and very charismatic people. Patrice Lumumba was one of them.

Belgian colonizers in Congo didn't allow Africans to be educated. So Lumumba taught himself via public library, then nabbed a respectable civil service job, then got caught embezzling and went to prison, and then got woke, really. And from behind bars, he wrote a manifesto asking for freedom. And then in 1960, Lumumba and Congo got it. Stuart Reid is the author of the Lumumba Plot. On June 30th, the Congo at last becomes independent. It's a moment of great celebration.

There are visitors from across the world. Elected as Prime Minister of the new Congo Republic, Mr. Patrice Lumumba receives congratulations from members of both Houses of Power. But almost immediately, everything falls apart. On July 5th, the army mutinies. There was an all-white officer corps and the black rank-and-file rose up against that all-white officer corps. Soldiers are marauding the streets, terrorizing white civilians. Violence and chaos in the Congo. Barely 11 days after official independence from

Belgium, Congolese troops mutinied and began a wave of attacks and looting throughout the far-flung sectors of the former colony. The white civilians, there are many Belgians who had remained on after independence, flee the Congo en masse, depriving the country instantly of much of its technical expertise, the air traffic controllers, the doctors, the judges, etc. Refugees are pouring in with harrowing tales of violence and of hasty flight. And then the Belgian military intervened, sending paratroopers across the country, ostensibly to protect its civilians.

At the request of Congolese officials, Belgian paratroops were recalled to quell the native army's mutiny and reign of terror. But to many Congolese, looked like a re-colonization. And then Katanga, the mineral-rich province in the country's southeast, announces that it's breaking free. A harsh awakening to reality from golden dreams of independence. So within less than two weeks of independence, Lumumba's country is falling apart before his very eyes,

and it's then that he calls on the United Nations for help. — The Council authorizes Secretary-General Hammershield to organize a peace force for the Congo. Historic intervention to ease birth pangs of a new African nation. — It's an impressive effort, but it fails to work, and the country is still split in two, and Lumumba is unable to exert full control. Now open civil war seems imminent as Lumumba masses troops to invade secessionist Katanga

province. So that's when Lumumba decides to knock on the door of the Americans for help. So Lumumba flies to the United States, goes to Washington, D.C., and has a frustrating meeting where he doesn't get any of the things he wants. So Lumumba leaves Washington, D.C., empty-handed. And so then, and only then, he turns to the Soviets for help. And in the eyes of the Americans, particularly at the CIA, that was an unforgivable Cold War sin. particularly at the CIA, that was an unforgivable Cold War sin. An unforgivable Cold War sin because the United States thinks of the Soviet Union as its main enemy. So this guy has come hat in hand to them, they've turned him away, he's gone to the Soviet Union, and now the United States does what?

The key event is a meeting at the White House on August 18th, 1960. President Eisenhower's meeting with the National Security Council and the topic that day is Lumumba and the Congo. Eisenhower says something to the effect of, we need to get rid of Lumumba, physically if necessary. We don't know his exact words, but we know that he said something to this effect and we know it for a few reasons. One, a note taker at the meeting would later testify to a Senate investigative committee that he remembers clearly Eisenhower ordering Lumumba's assassination and that the room fell into a stunned silence.

Also, during my research for the book, I found handwritten notes from the meeting that included the word Lumumba with a big black X written next to it, which is not proof but suggestive. And most important, we know that Eisenhower said this based on what happened next, which is that the CIA, at the direction of the president's National Security Advisor, puts into motion an assassination plot against Lumumba. So, for the first time in history, an American president has ordered the assassination of a foreign leader. And then Alan Dulles, as head of the CIA, puts into motion an operation to poison Lumumba's food or toothpaste. So a CIA chemist flies to the Congo with a vial of poisons, a syringe, rubber gloves, a surgical mask, and explains to the CIA station chief there,

here's this poison and you are to find a way to get it into Lumumba's body. So that's in September 1960. Meanwhile, a lot has happened on the ground in Congo. Lumumba has been ousted from power by a coup backed by the CIA and led by an army officer named Joseph Mobutu, who was receiving CIA cash at the time. and Lumumba is now under house arrest. Now the timing here is important. It's now December 1960. Eisenhower's second term is coming to a close. John F. Kennedy has been elected, having defeated Richard Nixon, and so there's going to be a change of party in the White House, and there's legitimate reason to suspect change of party in the White House and there's legitimate reason to suspect that the Kennedy administration will pursue a different policy toward Lumumba and the Congo than the Eisenhower administration did. So that creates this real fear on the ground in Congo among Lumumba's enemies,

that Lumumba might come back to power. And so Mobutu is worried about this because he would be out of a job. And Larry Devlin, the CIA station chief, is also worried that Lumumba might come back to power. Larry Devlin considers Lumumba a radical communist sympathizer, a Soviet stooge. And in his view, this would be a disaster for the United States if Lumumba returned to power. And so plans developed to transfer Lumumba to a province where it is certain he will be killed. Larry Devlin does not tell his bosses back at CIA headquarters in Washington what's happening in the Congo. This is the most significant development in weeks that Lumumba is about to be sent to his death, and Devlin sits on this information because he

fears, correctly, probably, that if he tells his bosses what's about to happen with Lumumba, he will be ordered to put the brakes on the operation. So on January 17, 1961, Lumumba is dragged out of his prison cell, put on a series of planes, tortured during the flights, and lands in Elizabethville, the capital of Katanga. Katanga is that breakaway province that's announced its secession. And within hours of being dragged off the plane in Elizabethville, he's tortured and then shot to death in a clearing in the woods. The slaying of Patrice Lumumba, deposed Congo premier, touches off worldwide demonstrations, small groups of students and others as here in Chicago and in London.

And it has been the signal for violent reactions in many parts of the world, first in the United Nations itself, where the Security Council meeting was violently interrupted. So Patrice Lumumba is shot dead. The CIA's man in Congo, Larry Devlin, could have stopped it, likely could have stopped it. Have the CIA and the United States ever really acknowledged what they did to Lumumba? No. The first effort at clarity was the Church Committee in the 1970s, which uncovered a lot

about the poisoning plot against Lumumba. But it let the CIA off the hook because the poisoning plot ended up fizzling out and not being the cause of Lumumba's death. What it did not fully understand was that the CIA essentially gave a green light to Mobutu to send Lumumba to his death. So I think you can draw a very straight line between the CIA's actions and Lumumba's death. There are still documents that are classified to this day, more than 60 years after the fact. To me, the first step in atonement would be transparency and revealing what exactly was known, who did what. There's no reason to hide any of this anymore. I wonder if you thought through a kind of counterfactual, if Patrice Lumumba, who was elected, had never been killed, and

Mobutu Sese Seko, Joseph Mobutu, had never taken over, not democratically elected and proceeded to basically pillage the Congo. Do you think this country that has suffered so much for 65 plus years, do you think it could be in a different place now if none of this had happened? Counterfactuals are impossible to prove. Yep. But here's what I'd say. The actual history that Congo experienced under Mobutu and afterwards was so bad that almost anything would have been better.

So after Lumumba's death, Mobutu's fully in control. He leads the Congo, which he renames Zaire, for more than 30 years. Completely kleptocratic, repressive, mismanages almost everything. And as a result, it's so weak and dysfunctional and unpopular that there's a foreign-backed invasion and rebellion that ends up toppling Mobutu. He flees to Morocco, dies of cancer a few months later, in fact, and so begins one of the deadliest wars in recent history. The Great African War, as it's called.

The Congolese Civil War is another name for it. And the conflict that's going on today is, in fact, part of that very same conflict, arguably, the one that began in 96, 97. So in my view, you can draw a pretty straight line between the actions that the US took in 1960 and 1961 up through the present. Stuart Reed, he's the author of the estimable book, The Lumumba Plot, The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination. Avishai Artsy produced today's show, Jolie Meyers edited, Laura Bullard and Miles Bryan checked the facts, Patrick Boyd and Andrea Christen's Daughter Engineered, and I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained. you