CONGO SOLDIER’S FINAL WORDS

This haunting video has surfaced, allegedly showing a Congolese soldier in his final moments of despair. Injured by a bullet and trapped in the dense underbrush, he shared his final thoughts, one last plea to a friend to take care of his financial affairs after he died. Tragically, he reportedly was confirmed dead just minutes after recording this heart-wrenching message. 

The air in Congo is thick with the scent of loss and sorrow as the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) spirals into deeper chaos. The M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, reportedly advanced on Goma city on 27 January, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee. Unverified reports have emerged of the rebels seizing control of Goma’s airport. 

In the capital, anger erupted on 28 January as protesters targeted embassies of countries like Belgium, France, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United States. Belgium and France are former colonisers that remain neo-colonisers. The United States benefitted from African colonisation and morphed into a neo-coloniser by forcing newly independent African states to take on loans most haven’t been able to pay without causing inflation and cost-of-living crises. The UN has reported Rwanda and Uganda support M23 rebels that have forced millions of Congolese off their lands in the resource conflict. And, finally, Kenya has been playing mediator, but drawing French President Emmanuel Macron into the conversation about conflicts in the DRC, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan.

The collapse of peace talks between the leaders of Rwanda and the DRC set for 15 December in Luanda, Angola, has only intensified the crisis. This foreign-instigated three-decade-long war over resources already claimed around 6 million lives between 1998 and 2010, and it has displaced over 7 million people as of the latest figures, leaving a trail of devastation.

Sources:

https://x.com/Humanrights256/status/1884536041433940216

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/fall-of-drc-s-goma-urgent-action-to-avert-a-regional-war-4905516

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/28/protesters-attack-french-us-rwandan-embassies-in-drc

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0qwlkydxxko

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/15/rwanda-dr-congo-peace-talks-hit-snag-as-mediator-angola-calls-off-meeting

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/21/a-guide-to-the-decades-long-conflict-in-dr-congo

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/rwanda-backed-congo-rebels-face-pockets-resistance-after-entering-goma-2025-01-28

https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war