(PHOTO: President Joseph Kabila, middle, with Gen. Didier Etumba, left, and Col. Mamadou Ndala, far right, in Goma on November 30, 2013)
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After Operation "Pomme Orange" (Pink Apple) to root out M23 insurgents (October 25-November 10, 2013), the FARDC have just launched this past January 16 Operation "Sukola"--Lingala for "mop up"--against the Ugandan Muslim rebels of ADF/NALU (Allied Democratic Forces/National Army for the Liberation of Uganda).
There's however a huge chasm between the two operations.
By the end of Operation Pomme Orange, morale was high among FARDC troops and among the rest of Congolese citizens who were all surfing the towering waves of Col. Mamadou Ndala's season of strange military victories.
But that was then...
In the intervening period, Col. Ndala, who'd gone to the Beni area in preparation of Operation Sukola now underway, was murdered in an ambush that has since turned out to be an FARDC inside job, triggering wild rumors and sending the country's morale tumbling down in free fall.
Another morale-deflating cause in Congolese citizens is that the investigation into the murder of Col. Ndala is shrouded in secrecy and, as Radio-Trottoir has it, might end up being botched (un)intentionally.
This opacity in turn fans swirling rumors about sightings of one of the alleged main suspects in the murder of Col. Ndala, Gen. Moundos, freely walking in Beni streets or hopping Kinshasa "ngandas" (sidewalk bars).
As Operation Sukola was starting, an outrageous rumor stormed the country alleging that it was an operation jointly mounted by the FARDC and the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF).
Given the unpopularity of Yoweri Museveni among Congolese who blame him and his Rwandan counterpart for hatching M23 and Congo's other real and imagined woes, the DRC government scrambled to forcefully dispel the notion of a Ugandan participation in Operation Sukola.
Thus, at the very beginning of the press briefing held Saturday January 18 at Beni to unveil Operation Sukola, Brig. Gen. Léon Richard Kasonga Tshibangu, FARDC spokesman, had to dismiss the damning rumor:
"There has never ever been any joint operations of the Congolese army and that of Uganda against ADF/NALU."
Another worrying rumor was the alleged conspicuous absence of MONUSCO's Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) from the Beni theater of operations.
MONUSCO military Spokesman Col. Félix Basse attempted last week with limited success to dispel that rumor by insisting that the UN Mission is indeed providing critical logistical and intelligence-gathering supports to the FARDC.
"We've deployed Force Intervention Brigade troops," Col. Basse told the press last Saturday, "with the aim of protecting civilians, and above all, of providing support to the offensive of government troops for achieving objectives determined by the FARDC."
Adding:
"MONUSCO is on the ground with Force Intervention Brigade, but also with [MONUSCO] North-Kivu brigade and the Nepalese battalion that is deployed north of North-Kivu."
But still people don't see MONUSCO gunships pounding ADF/NALU positions.
The FARDC have already seized from the ADF/NALU a dozen hamlets and villages the Ugandan rebels had occupied--including their stronghold of Mamundioma, about 45 Km northeast of Beni.
Close to the theater, there's another rumor spreading of ADF/NAFU simply drawing back from the area and moving northwestward to Orientale Province.
A rumor Brig. Gen. Kasonga also tackled squarely:
"In the event they'd attempt to move to another province, the security mechanism we've put in place would automatically function, for our mission this time is to completely neutralize armed groups."
Despite the stated ambition ("to neutralize all armed groups"), breath (North- and South-Kivu provinces), and the early successes of Operation Sukola, the morale of the Congolese continues to be in dismal shape as if the death of one citizen--Col. Ndala--had broken the spirit of an entire nation.
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PHOTO CREDITS: via Twitter @magloirepaluku
