The Republic Democratic of Congo is one of the most unstable countries in the world, it democratization process is crippled at a level where certain commentators have asked the question whether it should be cold “The Republic Democratic. This question emerged from the fact that the DRC has never had a peaceful transition of power. Its first democratically elected leader, Patrice Emery Lumumba, was assassinated in 1961, one year after the country gained independence from Belgium. President Joseph Kabila took power in 2001 after the assassination Laurent-Desire Kabila, the man who forced out President Mobutu Sese Seko, who called himself “Eagle de Kawele,” in 1997.
Mobutu’s decades-long rule is branded by many as an authoritarian, brutal and corrupt regime. Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, professor of African and Global Studies at the University of North Carolina goes as far as suggesting that the DRC is just a dictatorship regime that operates in the shadow of democracy. The DRC has been able to organize election, free or fair is debatable, in 2006 and 2011. Nevertheless, both polls were marred by violence and opposition allegations of widespread fraud, Joseph Kabila was declared the winner. This year the DRC has organize election after a long delay that generated deadly protests across the country. Finally, the vote was organized in on the 30th of December 2018, the results are yet to be announced after missing the deadline of Sunday 6th of January 2019. Many have seen this election as DRC’s first chance at a democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1960.
As the Congolese people and the international community are enthusiastically anticipating the outcome of the presidential election, some opposition leaders and their supporter in and outside the DRC are convinced that the opposition won and that the delay in announcing results is the ruling elites’ strategy to manipulate the result in favor of the ruling party’s candidate, Emanuel Ramazani Shadari. Certain analysts anticipate post-election violence. This anticipation went straight in the mind of the man of the moment in the White House, president of the US Donald Trump.
The White House confirmed that it had ordered about 80 combat-equipped military personnel to Gabon amid concerns that elections in Congo would result in violent clashes and possibly pose a threat to US diplomatic assets in his letter of notification to the American House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the US deployment to Gabon. President Donald Trump, said more troops could be dispatched to Gabon, or the separate Republic of Congo as needed. He confirmed that “troops will remain in the region until the security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo becomes such that their presence is no longer needed.” The deployment of American Soldiers in Gabon has raised many questions and multiple analyses have been done. The most debated question is “USA Troops in Gabon, is it about the DRC?”
Even though Gabon, which has a long history of military relations with the US plays host to one of AFRICOM’s cooperative security locations, which function as bare-bones launching pads for quick-reaction troops called upon to secure US diplomatic facilities in the broader region, the question USA Troops in Gabon, is it about the DRC? Emerged. The question may not be relevant to some, but it hides a certain number of factors that can be subjected to scrutiny. This can be explained by the fact that few days after US soldiers landed in Libreville, a group of soldiers attempted to over through the Gabonese president Ali Bongo.
The suspected coup plotters stormed the state radio and television headquarters around 4 AM on Monday the 7th of January 2019, allegedly taking journalists and staff hostage, while they read out a statement saying they had taken control of Gabon, Bongo is no longer in charge. Bongo was sworn in for his second seven-year term in 2016 after a disputed election followed by deadly protests. Bongo’s re-election extended his family’s half-century rule over the oil-rich nation of 2 million. Ali Bongo took over from his father, Omar Bongo, who died of cardiac arrest while receiving treatment for intestinal cancer in a Spanish clinic in 2009, following 42 years in office. His father came into power in 1967, seven years after the country’s independence from France. The officers declared their dissatisfaction with President Ali Bongo and said they had seized power to “restore democracy” in the country, the coup failed in few hours order was restored in the country.
Can it be correct to suspect that the 80 soldiers who landed in Libreville are just military advised who came to provide technical support the junta that attempted to take over Gabon. Since the US have a military base in Gabon can it be possible for a Coup d’Etat to be organized by junior officers without the US diplomatic cables and intelligence community to be aware? If Yes, then what is the main importance of a country to host a military based that cannot discover a miner coup attempt? These questions would need answers, but their answers would be hard to find because of they are located within the intelligence community. Or based on president Trump’s notification to the US House Speaker, is it possible to just jump into a simple conclusion the US base in Gabon does not have any other mission than protecting US interest. Therefore, it can also be said that the 80 American soldiers are simply their waiting to go in DRC to protect American interest. But this assumption is very painfully because it was supposed to about everyone who can be affected by the result that will soon be released in the DRC. Yet the main question remains “USA Troops in Gabon, is it about DRC?
Feruzi Ngwamba Foze
