Why DR Congo's army struggles against the smaller M23

Since January, the M23 rebel movement has seized Goma and Bukavu — two key cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — and since set up to govern for the long term in the regions under its control. 

The Congolese armed forces (FARDC) comprised around 135,000 soldiers in 2022, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, although experts believe this figure has since risen.

The United Nations estimates that M23 has only a few thousand fighters, supported by around 4,000  Rwandan soldiers.

More than 7,000 people have been killed in eastern Congo since January, DRC Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka saidImage: AFP/Getty Images

FARDC's internal struggles

In 2023, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi more than doubled military spending to $794 million (€732 million) — which raises questions about how M23 fighters have managed to gain control of such significant regions of eastern DRC.

"One of the main factors explaining the weakness of the FARDC lies in systemic corruption," suggested Alain De Neve, a researcher at the Royal Higher Institute for Defense (RHID) in Brussels, a Belgian think tank.

"Numerous reports have highlighted the disappearance of funds intended for soldiers' salaries and military logistics," De Neve added. "This practice explains why troop morale is particularly low and why desertions are recurrent. In some cases, soldiers stationed in the eastern part of the country even resort to looting or extorting local populations in order to survive."

Ciaran Wrons-Passmann, director of the German Ecumenical Network for Central Africa (ÖNZ), said the FARDC had developed a "life of its own" — becoming a "self-service shop," and providing an "opportunity for leaders to enrich themselves." 

What's more, senior FARDC military officers in eastern DRC have reported commanding significantly more soldiers than they actually do, as Jakob Kerstan, head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's office in Kinshasa, noted.

"Because they then also receive more funding from Kinshasa," Kerstan said. "The money is mostly distributed via the generals."

Lack of training, equipment, communication

Citing soldiers' testimonies, interviews with military officers and a confidential UN memo, the news agency Reuters has described FARDC as "a fighting force hobbled by entrenched problems such as poor pay and corruption that reform efforts have failed to resolve."

Although Tshisekedi announced improved pay for soldiers as part of military reforms, Kerstan pointed out that these wages paled in comparison to those of Eastern European mercenaries, who "were paid tens of thousands of euros per month."

So, "you work with other players who you think are better suited. That undermines the esprit de corps," explained Wrons-Passmann.

According to De Neve, another major issue for the FARDC is the "chronic deficit in training and equipment — unlike M23, which benefits from structured training and combat tactics well-adapted to the mountainous terrain of North Kivu."

In contrast, the FARDC is highly outdated and inefficient in terms of technology and logistics, Kerstan pointed out.

"Kinshasa sometimes doesn't know where parts of the army are traveling in eastern Congo," he said. "The army is sometimes coordinated via Whatsapp, which makes it extremely difficult for Kinshasa to give clear instructions that are then implemented on the ground."

Cronyism and the fear of a coup 

The government shows an "unwillingness to delegate real military power to competent officers," said De Neve, who pointed out that cronyism is widespread.

"Military commanders are not always selected based on their competence, but rather according to their loyalty to the regime. This leads to poor tactical and operational decisions."

The DR Congo appears to struggle with recruiting loyal military officers. 

"There has been a lot of rotation in the chiefs of staff and also in the intelligence services," said Wrons-Passmann. "This shows that [Tshisekedi] has not found the right personnel to implement his ideas, if he has any."

"Instead of being reformed into a professional force, the national army has absorbed former warlords, but also their own networks of loyalty," De Neve added. "This phenomenon has led to the existence of parallel chains of command."

Army's legacy of division

Even the late former president Mobutu Sese Seko "did not want the army to become too strong, for fear of a coup d'état, and played generals off against each other," Kerstan explained.

"In principle, the army was never there to take over national defense," said Wrons-Passmann. "Even under Mobutu, priority was given to the presidential guard."

Under Mobutu's successors, Laurent and Joseph Kabila, the army was infiltrated by Rwanda, among other nations.

"That is also the reason why the government is now so reluctant to negotiate with M23," said Jakob Kerstan. "Because they are afraid that they will be infiltrated." 

"Don't forget that this army was led at the beginning, after the fall of Mobutu, by James Kabarebe, a Rwandan military officer who is now under sanctions from the United States," Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya told DW.

"After the Sun City Agreement (a pact signed by the combatants of confict in the region in 2002) (…) we mixed all those [from the] military coming from the Rwandan side. When you mix all this, it becomes something very complicated."

Crucial influence of Rwanda's army

The army had been "betrayed from within," Tshisekedi told his supporters. "My predecessor spent 18 years in power without rebuilding the army," the president told the US daily The New York Times. Some members of the armed forces lacked a "sense of duty" to the nation, Tshisekedi's office said.

"One of the key elements explaining the FARDC's difficulty in defeating M23 lies in the military support from Rwanda," said De Neve.

Additionally, Rwanda's army is "extremely well organized," as Wrons-Passmann noted.

The DRC is now working on reforming its armed forces, said Muyaya — but it's not happening quickly.

"You cannot think that you can solve, finish all the reform […] for the army in five years," he added. "We started doing that. Why do you think President Kagame decided to attack and [wage] this war in the DRC? Because he's witnessing the way things are changing."

This article was translated from German.