Kenyan General Jeff Nyagah, commander of the East African Community of States (EAC) regional force, tendered his resignation on Thursday 27 April. The Kenyan general is highly criticized by Kinshasa, which accuses him of a certain laxity vis-à-vis the M23. The Kenyan officer stresses that his safety is no longer guaranteed
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi
In his resignation letter, Major General Joseph Nyagah lists all the reasons that led him to leave his post. He claims that he and the regional force are victims of a campaign of demonization carried out with banknotes. He also claims that members of the private military companies present in Goma tried to intimidate him by deploying a surveillance device around his residence.
Broken trust
The Kenyan officer also accuses the government of not covering the costs of the offices of the force’s headquarters. Félix Tshisekedi’s relatives explain that trust had been broken for several months. Deployed in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the force, led by General Nyagah, is supposed to fight armed groups including the M23. Joseph Nyagah’s remarks advocating a political process rather than an open confrontation with the M23 annoyed in Kinshasa. The images showing Félix Tshisekedi speaking to him in a firm tone had toured the Congolese web.
Kenyan President William Ruto immediately appointed a successor, but he is not sure that confidence will be restored quickly. Kinshasa doubts the effectiveness of this regional force and even more the sincerity of the executive secretary of the EAC. The authorities are now making the renewal of the mandate of this force conditional on an uncompromising assessment and are even proposing to halve the duration of this mandate initially set at six months.