The Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC)/M23 has strongly condemned the Southern African Development Community (SADC) military intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), accusing the regional bloc of violating its own Mutual Defence Pact and siding with an oppressive regime.
In an open letter to SADC and East African Community (EAC) leaders, the AFC criticized the decision to deploy troops without addressing the political roots of the crisis and ignoring their grievances at the recent regional summit in Tanzania.
The AFC, which identifies itself as a constitutional revolutionary movement, reaffirmed its political legitimacy and its alliance with March 23 Movement (M23), its military wing. The group expressed outrage over being excluded from peace discussions, arguing that lasting stability cannot be achieved through military force while key stakeholders are ignored.
“We are not at war, nor in rebellion—OURS IS A CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION,” AFC Coordinator Corneille Nangaa Yobeluo declared, citing Article 64(1) of the DRC Constitution, which states that every Congolese has the duty to resist any individual or group that seizes power illegally. The AFC insists that President Félix Tshisekedi’s administration has dismantled democracy, using political repression, ethnic scapegoating, and economic exploitation to maintain power.
The letter accuses SADC troops of siding with Tshisekedi’s forces, which allegedly include fighters from the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR)—a group known for its role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The AFC claims that Congolese Tutsis are being deliberately targeted and that Tshisekedi’s family has turned the country’s mineral wealth into personal property, controlling key mining sites from Ituri to Lualaba.
Beyond repression, the AFC cites a pattern of political assassinations, including the killings of MP Chérubin Okende, Judge Raphaël Yanyi, and Generals Delphin Kahimbi and Timothée Mukunto Kiyana, as well as the massacre of over 50 unarmed civilians from the “Agano la Uwezo” sect in Goma. It condemns the use of European mercenaries against Congolese protesters and demands that SADC stop backing a regime that has lost legitimacy.
The AFC argues that excluding them from regional peace discussions is a deliberate attempt to suppress legitimate grievances. By treating the crisis as a purely military problem, SADC and EAC are prolonging the instability instead of addressing its root causes. The group calls for direct political dialogue with Kinshasa, asserting that Congo’s decades-long conflict will not be resolved by foreign troops defending a broken system.
As regional leaders deliberate on Congo’s future, the AFC’s message is clear: ignoring their voice will only deepen the crisis.
