The scenes unfolding today on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in Uvira, echo the darkest chapters of eastern Congo’s history: the military collapse and the frantic exodus of soldiers’ families, crammed into overcrowded boats fleeing toward Kalemie.
Images of this flotilla laden with women and children abandoning a city stripped of its defenders evoke dramatic parallels with the fall of Goma and Bukavu, where the Congolese army (FARDC), entrusted with protecting the nation, offered only fleeting resistance before surrendering the ground.
Uvira now joins this tragic continuity, exposing the impotence of an army crippled by corruption, disorganization, and the absence of a coherent strategy.
The Triumph of Disorder over Authority
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This is not merely a military retreat but a moral collapse. The FARDC aligned opportunistically with the Wazalendo militias and the FDLR mercenaries of terror rebranded as auxiliaries of the regime represent less a national force than a private army serving narrow, predatory interests.
This fragmented coalition, claiming to defend Congolese sovereignty, is in reality a band of criminals whose abuses against civilians have destroyed any legitimacy. Against this disorderly conglomerate devoid of doctrine, ideals, or discipline the advance of General Makenga’s forces takes on the semblance of a liberating crusade. It is not only military but also political, seeking to break the cycle of institutionalized violence and restore the population to the heart of strategic priorities.
A Historic Turning Point
As hours pass, one truth emerges: we are witnessing a historic turning point where the battle lines redraw the very lines of legitimacy. The fall of Uvira is not simply the loss of a strategic stronghold; it is the stark demonstration of a failed state, one that has transformed its army into an instrument of predation rather than a shield of protection.
The tragedy unfolding in Uvira resonates with striking historical parallels: the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, when the South Vietnamese army and their families fled in panic, and the fall of Kabul in 2021, when the Afghan army vanished in the face of Taliban determination, under the powerless gaze of the international community.
In both cases, military collapse was accompanied by moral breakdown, loss of legitimacy, and immense human suffering. Uvira now belongs to this same paradigm: a hurried flight, palpable fear, and the erosion of the army’s traditional authority.
Choosing Courage Over Capitulation
Yet where these historical precedents revealed the abandonment of the population for political bargains and personal survival, General Makenga and his forces chart a different course one of responsibility and protection. By advancing decisively to secure civilians and dismantle the criminal networks entrenched in institutional chaos, Makenga embodies a legitimacy built on courage and justice rather than fear and plunder.
Thus, Uvira is not only a battlefield but a stage where the dialectic of capitulation versus dignity, failure versus resilience, shame versus honor, plays out once again. History is being written here relentlessly and without compromise and it will bear the indelible mark of those who chose to protect life instead of fleeing from it.
