Three Kenyan truck drivers are stuck in Goma following the ongoing dogged conflict between the M23 rebel groups and the government which has claimed over 700 lives since war broke out.
The truck drivers were caught up in the mess when they transported goods from Mombasa to DRC. They were among about 20 drivers, out of whom 16 were evacuated to Rwanda in the rescue mission led by UN security troops in Goma.
The Kenya truck driver’s chairperson Salim Mwatela who contacted Busia Press Club on the phone from DRC has issued a clarion call to transporters to suspend DRC trips citing hostility and current state of insecurity.
“I just want to appeal to transporters to suspend DRC trips as the situation at the moment is hostile and risky to drivers. Sending a driver to DRC now is like signing his death sentence,” said Mwatela.
Mwatela has sounded a firm warning to all drivers over the impending humanitarian crisis should they be a victim of ongoing war in Goma.
“Its costly for any driver in DRC as the prices of all essential items have already skyrocketed with foreigners being the main target,” he added.
The sentiment was echoed by Peter Tanui, a truck driver who was lucky to have been evacuated just a day when the war began. According to Tanui, the drivers must trade with caution as the M23 rebels are very hostile.
“Let us just keep off any trip to DRC, I must count myself lucky. Things are just out of proportion as the M23 rebels are not living anything by chance,” narrated Tanui.
“Our colleagues who are still in the Goma report gun-fire and mortar fire across the city and the presence of many dead bodies in the streets. We have reports of rapes committed by fighters, looting of property, and massive destruction which targets at drivers as the rebel want foodstuffs and cash to sustain them,” he added.
The call comes after President William Ruto convened an extraordinary regional summit on Wednesday last week to discuss the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which saw the rebel group M23 overrun the key city of Goma on Sunday.
“The situation in the DRC is a very complicated situation piling up for over 30 years attracting forces from the United Nations, SADCC and EAC; dialogue and consultation is the only way to solve the situation,” President Ruto wrote on his official online account.
The M23 group, one of many militias in the DRC, who have taken control of vast parts of mineral-rich eastern DRC since its resurgence in 2021. According to the UN’s refugee agency more than 400,000 people have been forced from their homes in the provinces of North and South Kivu in the last four weeks, and the latest escalation in Goma has seen tens of thousands more people flee to neighbouring towns.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is economically important to Kenya primarily as a significant export market, with Kenyan goods like coated flat-rolled iron, tobacco, and confectionery sugar being sold there, while Kenya imports mainly sawn wood, perfume plants, and coffee from DRC; this relationship is further strengthened by DRC’s recent membership in the East African Community (EAC), opening up new trade opportunities and potentially increasing Kenyan investment in the region, particularly in the financial services sector.