Washington Aims to Turn Congo Military Mission into a U.S. Proxy Force | Black Agenda Report

Washington Aims to Turn Congo Military Mission into a U.S. Proxy Force

06 Mar 2013

🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

The new agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo – which has already been violated by U.S.-allied forces – would field a peace-enforcement mission. However, “if the U.S. and the Europeans pay for this nominally African force, and train and equip it, as they do in Somalia, then the U.S. will actually be running the show in Congo.”

Washington Aims to Turn Congo Military Mission into a U.S. Proxy Force

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“It will be up to Angola and South Africa to ensure that the new peace-enforcement brigade does not become a front for the United States.”

Renewed fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo has left hundreds dead and added thousands to the list of nearly two million displaced persons. Congolese government troops are again battling so-called rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda, two of the United States’ closes allies whose seizure of much of eastern Congo is the primary cause of the death of six million Congolese since 1996, half of them children under the age of five.

Only last month, Uganda and Rwanda and eight other African nations signed an agreement promising not to interfere in Congo’s internal affairs. The accord was brokered by the United States, the United Nations and the African Union, but Washington holds most of the cards in the region.

The U.S. arms and finances the Ugandan and Rwandan regimes, and has staunchly protected its African allies from sanction at the United Nations. In that sense, the genocide in Congo is a U.S.-sponsored holocaust. The UN, whose 17,000 peacekeeping troops have done nothing over the years to protect Congo’s territorial integrity, is so deep in the United States’ pocket, it is considering inviting U.S. drones into the region. And the African Union has hopelessly compromised itself by lending its name and legitimacy to an 18,000-troop mission in Somalia that is, in effect, a proxy force for United States policy in Africa. The same thing is likely to happen in the Democratic Republic of Congo if the recent agreement leads, as planned, to creation of a peace-enforcing brigade with the authority to actually use its guns. If the U.S. and the Europeans pay for this nominally African force, and train and equip it, as they do in Somalia, then the U.S. will actually be running the show in Congo.

“The U.S. has been destabilizing Congo since the Clinton administration.”

Washington already stations Special Forces troops in Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, the Central African Republic and South Sudan – all signatories to the Congo peace accord, along with Burundi, Angola, South Africa and Tanzania. It will be up to Angola and South Africa to ensure that the new, peace-enforcement brigade does not become a front for the United States, like the Somalia operation.

The U.S. position towards Congo can be gleaned from a talk given, last month, at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, by outgoing Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson. Members of Friends of Congo were in attendance, and reported that one would not be aware, from listening to Carson, “that a substantial portion” of eastern Congo “is still under occupation” by the Rwanda-backed rebels. The truth is, Rwanda’s proxies in Congo are also America’s proxies. The U.S. has been destabilizing Congo since the Clinton administration –fomenting chaos and genocide as a weapon of foreign policy, as it has done in Somalia, and is now doing in North Africa and Syria. The U.S. objective is to bring the whole of Africa into the American military orbit. Washington’s version of “peace” is submission, dependence and surrender of national sovereignty, and there is no limit to how many Congolese they are willing to kill.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

listen

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20130306_gf_CongoAccord.mp3

More Stories

21st Century Wire Global Affairs
HARVARD REPORT: The Hidden Numbers Behind Gaza’s Real Death Toll
25 Jun 2025
A recent report prepared by Garb Yaakov, a Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and published on The President & Fellows of Harvard College Dataverse website, has…
Tamanisha John
Resisting Dependency: U.S. Hegemony, China’s Rise, and the Geopolitical Stakes in the Caribbean
25 Jun 2025
The Caribbean has become an emerging battleground in the U.S.-China rivalry, as regional states strategically navigate between the demands of superpowers and their own development needs.
Nicholas Mwangi
Ghana’s Support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan Undermines Western Sahara’s Push for Sovereignty
25 Jun 2025
Ghana endorsed Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara, abandoning its long-held support for Sahrawi sovereignty. Now Ghana is aligned with Morocco’s expanding economic and diplomatic maneuver…
Progressive International
"Their aim is silence — ours is truth"
25 Jun 2025
Statement from the Sovereign Media collective, a new coalition of anti-imperialist media organizations, on the Israeli regime's assault on journalists from Palestine to Iran.
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD , Layla Brown, PhD
Ajamu Baraka Speaks on Israel, Iran, and Zionism
25 Jun 2025
Ajamu Baraka joins LSR to discuss BAP's June 13, 2025, statement, "The Middle East is On Fire Because Israeli and U.S. Imperialism Lit the Match". What is the current situation in the region? How…