Africa-Press – Rwanda. A reliable source from the Congolese Defense Ministry has revealed that President Felix Tshisekedi has ordered a total of U$1billion be allocated to the Military every year in the budget.
President Tshisekedi’s popularity ratings have suffered a downfall after the M23 liberation movement bombed the national forces FARDC out of Bunagana town forcing them to flee into neighbouring Uganda.
The humiliation has forced the head of state to revise upwards the budget for the military as announced during the Superior Council of Defense and Council of Ministers last Friday.
President Félix Tshisekedi instructed the Government to mobilize the means required to “enable the army to do its job better”. “Thus, a program budget of one billion US dollars per year will soon be aligned to modernize the FARDC, equip it and train the military”, said a source at the Congolese Ministry of Defense.
Military Expenditure in Congo increased to 364 U$ Million in 2020 from 353 U$Million in 2019. According to the Global Firepower ranking for 2022, Democratic Republic of the Congo is ranked 76 of 142 out of the countries considered for the annual GFP review.
As Rwanda is hosting the 26th edition of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in the capital Kigali graced by Prince Charles of wales, the Congolese republican guard soldiers are demonstrating in the Congolese capital Kinshasa over 2000kms away.
Locally known by their French name la garde républicaine – unité spéciale de l’armée, the soldiers are formed in a parade of 5 rows and 10 columns marching through the streets in protest of M23 seizure of Bunagana town and other swathes of territory captured.
This special military unit charged with protecting the President and his immediate family and strategic installations in Kinshasa have also accused Rwanda of backing the M23 liberation movement.
Led by General Christian Tshiwewe, several hundred soldiers from the Republican Guard marched this Friday chanting “to die on the battlefield is honour”.
The protest march code-named “endurance” march is a routine exercise revealing the physical condition of these RG units. The hundred who had taken up position at the Central Station pounded the pavement, for five hours, at a rhythmic pace, to the Colonel Tshatshi camp, the point of convergence of all the units deployed in different sites.
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