Wie weit wird Ruanda in den Kongo gehen? Inmitten westlicher Untätigkeit schnitzt Kigali seinen Nachbarn und macht einen regionalen Krieg wieder an

[SS from essay by Michela Wrong, author of Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad.]

In 1963, nearly three dozen newly independent African nations met in Addis Ababa to establish the Organization of African Unity. Among the core principles they embraced was the inviolability of existing, colonial-era national borders. Failure to uphold them, they agreed, would open the way for one irredentist claim after another and threaten to tear the continent apart. For much of the past six decades, although borders have repeatedly been flouted and—in a few notable cases—redrawn, that legal precept has generally held.

Since January, however, the rapid conquest and occupation of a huge area of the [Democratic Republic of Congo](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/regions/democratic-republic-congo) by Rwanda and the M23 rebel group it supports has raised concerns that the principle may now be endangered. Over the past two months, the M23, together with as many as 10,000 to 12,000 Rwandan troops, has overrun an area of eastern Congo that is home to more than five million people. In late January, the rebels captured Goma, the largest city in the province of North Kivu; less than three weeks later, they also seized Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, as well as a key airport, thereby cutting off Congolese forces from resupply. The Congolese government puts the number of dead so far at 7,000.

Europe does not care because it does affect them.

Why should the West act ? Is there no other actors in Africa who could sort it out ? Isnt there African Union ? What about South Africa ?