The catastrophic conflict looming in the heart of Africa

Is it too late, asked Le Pays (Ouagadougou): have we "reached the point of no return" for another catastrophic conflict in Africa? Last week, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda were on the brink of all-out war, the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group having just seized the city of Goma in eastern DRC – a lightning assault that left the streets littered with dead bodies.

The region has endured three decades of bloodshed, but now, as M23 advances "with guns blazing" and Rwanda and DRC's presidents trade barbs, a hideous collision looms. France and the UK have waded in, demanding that Rwandan forces leave the DRC "immediately"; South Africa, which has seen 13 of its soldiers on a UN peacekeeping mission killed in the M23 offensive, said that further Rwandan attacks would be seen as a "declaration of war".

Two things are fuelling this crisis, said Pierre Haski on France Inter (Paris): rare minerals, and the "ghosts" of the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda claims that Hutu extremists who helped kill hundreds of thousands of Tutsis in the 1994 genocide are still sheltering in eastern Congo; the DRC accuses Rwanda of orchestrating the offensive to loot the DRC of rare minerals such as coltan and cobalt, which are used in almost all digital devices, via M23, its Tutsi-led proxy.

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But the international community is wrong to pick sides and round on Rwanda, said Sanny Ntayombya in The New Times (Kigali). "Notably absent" in their selective outrage is any mention of the way DRC's notoriously corrupt president, Félix Tshisekedi, years ago rejected M23's offer to negotiate a peace deal. In short, he opted for conflict. The result? Two years of "humiliating" losses, culminating in the fall of Goma.

Back home, Tshisekedi – his country's "naked king" – is embroiled in scandal, said Colette Braeckman in Le Soir (Brussels). It's no mystery why his forces failed to hold up last week. Many of the regular recruits, paid just $100 a month, are demoralised by the government's failure "to root out the corruption that has long plagued the army". They've had to look on as the "Romeos" (Romanian mercenaries) by their side, who enjoy salaries of up to $5,000 a month, surrendered to the M23 at the first sign of danger.

"All this adds to Congo's horrific turmoil," said The Economist (London). "Its various conflicts have driven 8 million people from their homes" – 400,000 in the past month alone. "In much of the east, men with guns rape and plunder with impunity."

And today, Rwanda is seeking to redraw the map of Africa by grabbing "a big chunk of Congolese territory while pretending not to". Until now, many Western governments had "a soft spot for Rwanda": a haven of order in a sea of chaos, it has been rewarded with aid and development projects. But under "dictator" Paul Kagame, it has become a "predator": and it may not stop at Goma. Some fear that Kagame's ultimate aim is "to topple the Congolese government".

On Monday, as international pressure mounted, a ceasefire was agreed between M23 and the DRC, said Dale Pankhurst on The Conversation. It's something, but it's "not enough". What is needed is a "durable solution that addresses the root causes and fears that are driving the armed conflict".