Welcome to 2014! While you were away at the beach/alpine cabin/in-laws’ house there were a few important events unfolding in some of the conflicts in Africa. Here is a brief recap of what happened while the world was on holiday.
M23’s defeat following concerted FARDC and FIB attacks was a breath of fresh strategic air. The willingness by M23, or at least its political wing, to negotiate terms of disarmament and demobilisation is an equally promising start. However, Kabila’s team at Kampala is refusing to concede a semantic problem of what to call the settlement agreement. This stubbornness can cost them dearly if they are not flexible on what to call M23’s return from the bush.
Since the overthrow of the government by the Seleka rebel movement in March, the Central African Republic has once more fallen off the media radar. African Defence Review finds out at what has become of the security situation since.
Excerpts from the battles that defeated M23.
Two Rooivalks from the Force Intervention Brigade attacked M23 positions in Chanzu, scoring a number of direct hits and marking the type’s first combat action.
A detailed analysis of how M23 was defeated by the combined forces of the DRC national army, FARDC, and the UN’s Force Intervention Brigade.