THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Feb

08

2025

DRC conflict: talks have failed to bring peace. Is it time to try sanctions?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) escalated at the end of January 2025 when Goma, the capital of the province of North Kivu, fell to Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The civilian population is paying a heavy price as a result of ongoing violence, despite a series of initiatives aimed at creating conditions for peace. Since the re-emergence of the M23 in November 2021, violent clashes with the Congolese army have led to thousands of deaths and displaced more than one million people in North Kivu province alone. Patrick Hajayandi, whose research focuses on peacebuilding and regional reconciliation,…

Feb

06

2025

By BRANDON MARC FINN and PATRICK BRANDFUL COBBINAH

DRC: history is repeating itself in Lubumbashi as the world scrambles for minerals to go green

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

LUBUMBASHI is a city in the mineral-rich Katanga region in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Many people might not have heard of it, but Lubumbashi and its surrounding region have been at the centre of global geopolitics since the start of the 20th century. The area provided immense sources of copper, a metal that helped electrify the planet in the 1900s. It was also the source of all the uranium for the atom bombs used in the Second World War. The global demand for these minerals came at a great price. Lubumbashi grew as a divided…

Feb

04

2025

By CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

Violence and conflict in Africa is the business of all Africans

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

IN the last two weeks, 14 of our soldiers have been killed in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after coming under attack. They were killed in violation of a ceasefire agreement between the DRC and Rwanda facilitated by President João Lourenço of Angola. South African soldiers are in the DRC as part of the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC) and the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO). The UN Security Council has roundly condemned the attack, reiterating that attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes. As a nation,…

Feb

05

2025

By DANIEL LEVINE-SPOUND

Fall of Goma: Why Rwandan aggression in DR Congo must be stopped

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By Daniel Levine-Spound ON 27 January, the Rwandan military and an armed group known as the M23 seized Goma — the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and a key humanitarian relief hub — in a lightning offensive that has imperilled more than a million civilians. While the two forces' intentions remain uncertain – evidence points to the possibility of long-term occupation or even annexation – one thing is clear: none of this would have been possible without the complicity of a range of Western and African states.…

Jan

31

2025

By ZSA-ZSA TEMMERS BOGGENPOEL

Land seizure and South Africa’s new expropriation law: scholar weighs up the act

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

SOUTH AFRICA has a new law to govern the expropriation (or compulsory acquisition) of private property by the government for public purposes or in the public interest. The passing of the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 followed a parliamentary process that began in 2020. The act repeals the apartheid-era Expropriation Act 63 of 1975 and aims to align expropriation law with the constitution. It sets out the procedures, rules and regulations for expropriation. Besides setting out in quite a detailed fashion how expropriations are to take place, the act also provides an outline regarding how compensation is to be determined.…

Jan

28

2025

By MATHATHA TSEDU

Final dignity for a freedom fighter who gave up a cushy job, life to fight for the liberation of his people

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MATSHABA Tsedu/Tseto Muleya alias Joe Mkhaba, alias Joe Mbatha, alias W Williams, alias Frank Martin Nkosi alias Frank Martin returned home in September last year in a box. His remains, buried under the name Frank Martin Nkosi, had been exhumed from grave no 1052 at Warren Hills Cemetery in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he laid from 1987 to 2024. The exhumation was part of the repatriation of freedom fighters who fell and were buried in foreign lands. The multiple identities testify to the various roles he had played in the ANC and in Umkhonto we Sizwe, the liberation army. And this…

Jan

30

2025

By GERRIT KURTZ

Peace in Sudan: a fresh mediation effort is needed – how it could work

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

INTENSE fighting has ravaged Sudan since 15 April 2023. The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and its erstwhile comrades-in-arms, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Famine, displacement and mass atrocities are wreaking havoc in the country. International mediation efforts have been lacklustre and fruitless. The United Nations Security Council has been preoccupied with other crises and blocked by its own divisions. The African Union has created diplomatic groups, a high-level panel and a presidential committee, none of which has been particularly active. It has been very slow in tackling…

Jan

30

2025

By JULIUS A. AMIN

Cameroon could do with some foreign help to solve anglophone crisis – but the state doesn’t want it

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WHAT began in late 2016 as a peaceful protest by lawyers and teachers in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions quickly turned violent and developed into what’s become known as Cameroon’s anglophone crisis. The protest was instigated by the perceived marginalisation of Cameroon’s anglophone region, which makes up 20% of the nation’s 29 million people. The conflict has resulted in immense destruction and casualties. Cameroon’s military responded to the protest with arrests and torture. Voices that called for the complete secession of the anglophone regions from the Republic of Cameroon gained momentum. They created a virtual Ambazonia Republic and…

Jan

29

2025

By KEN MATTHYSEN and PEER SCHOUTEN

Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group seeks local power in DRC, not just control over mining operations

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE violence wrought by the Rwandan-backed rebel group M23 Movement is often narrowly framed as intended to control the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s resource-rich mining sites. The rebel group launched its most recent offensive in 2021 and currently controls vast territories in the southeast of North Kivu province, surrounding and cutting off the main city of Goma. Eastern DR Congo mines produce crucial raw materials such as tin, tantalum and tungsten, as well as abundant quantities of gold. It, therefore, seems logical to reduce explanations of conflict to the ambition by M23, and Rwanda behind it, to control the…

Jan

25

2025

By ABBEY MAKOE

Palestine offers President Trump the opportunity to make good on his promise for peace

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

FOR once, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians—spared from the devastation caused by US-supplied Israeli tanks, drones, and automatic gunfire—are flocking back to their former neighbourhoods. Everything has been lost in almost 16 months of sheer annihilation, characterized by the death of more than 47,000 Palestinians, including approximately 19,000 children, along with scores of journalists, media workers, paramedics, doctors, and UN employees. Nothing and no one was spared. The remnants of Gaza alone are enough to trigger waves of personal and collective anxiety, endless fear of potential siege resumption, wanton destruction, and apparent international indifference. Traumatized children and their relatives, who…