Amid growing tensions, Rwanda’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo has spoken out on last week’s two-day border skirmish which left five Congolese soldiers dead, saying that Rwandan soldiers were provoked into the exchange of fire.

The two sides continue to trade accusations on the cause of the incident which renewed tensions on Rwanda’s western border.

Addressing a press conference in Kigali on June 20, Mushikiwabo said that soldiers from DR Congo crossed into the Rwandan side of the border and Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) asked them to leave but they refused.

It was during the argument, according to Mushikiwabo, that a Congolese soldier opened fire and the RDF reacted. In the process, one person died.

“The same team with additional soldiers came back in the day and there were, as you can expect, new clashes and four people died but we have since managed to get the Joint Verification Mechanism team to come to the site of the clashes and investigate and give a report.”

“The JVM came after two days and we are waiting for a report. However calm has since returned. There is no reason to believe that soldiers from DR Congo will come back and cross the border,” Mushikiwabo said.

Mushikiwabo’s remarks came just as reports that new evidence had emerged that Rwandan troops might have executed Congolese military prisoners in Rwanda and dumped their bodies at the border.

READ: Rwanda, DR Congo trade blame for heavy border fighting

It is now not clear who is telling the truth about the incident with Kinshasa and Kigali giving different versions.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the fresh claims were made by a Congolese military doctor who examined the bodies of five Congolese soldiers. Rwanda says the soldiers were killed during the skirmishes.

Kinshasa's government spokesperson Lambert Mende gave two varying accounts, stating in the first one that a soldier was kidnapped by the Rwandan army from DR Congo and taken to Rwanda where he was murdered.

In the second account, Mr Mende said the second confrontation happened when DR Congo troops went to rescue their colleague but denied any soldiers were killed. Instead he said bodies were brought by the Rwandan army but they were not of Congolese soldiers.

The new claim of the soldiers being prisoners of war adds a twist to the incident whose real cause is yet to be known. Both countries remain on high alert, with military patrolling both sides of the border.

Rwanda also claims one of the soldiers killed in the skirmishes was a member of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a DRC-based Rwandan militia accused of participating in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Last week’s incident was the latest in the frosty relations between the two neighbours who were on the path to mending forces after the defeat of M23 rebels last year.

Rwanda had been accused of backing the Tutsi rebels who started a mutiny in 2012 and went on to wage a war against the Kigali government.

Since the defeat of M23, relative peace between the two countries had been restored but not without incidents similar to that of last week.

Mushikiwabo however says relations between Rwanda and DR Congo are stable, despite Kigali not having an ambassador in Kinshasa. She said a new ambassador will be appointed to replace Amandin Rugira, who was transferred to Burundi earlier this year.

Over but not over

Despite the M23 episode being over, not all is well between Rwanda and DR Congo as Kinshasa says Rwanda has to hand over more than 500 M23 combatants. DR Congo claims Rwanda continues to protect the group which is led by Jean Runiga (the former political head of M23) and some of the top commanders.

Two weeks ago, a delegation from DR Congo which had come to negotiate the handover, was turned back by Rwanda for failing to meet some of the requests Kigali had made to the Kinshasa government. It is further claimed that some of the former combatants could have sought asylum in Rwanda.

Mushikiwabo said that those trying to create another episode out of the M23 façade have a hidden agenda because Rwanda has no intention of keeping any Congolese citizen on its territory.

She said for a year and half, Rwanda has been appealing to the international community and DR Congo to intervene in the case of the former M23 fighters but the process has been slow, mainly from the DRC side, which has failed to fulfil some of the requirements requested.

The minister further said that a delegation of officials from DR Congo was refused entry at Rubavu border because they could not give specifics of what they had come to do and whom they were going to talk with among other things. They were asked to go back and fulfil the formalities.

“We are waiting to hear from the DR Congo and a team from the United Nations when they intend to come, exactly what the dates are, and whom they want to talk to. You don’t just show up at the border and say you are here to work on whatever issue,” she said.

‘We had not received any proper notification and we did not know when they arrived,” she said.

Not talks with FDLR

Rwanda maintains that it will not have any negotiations with the FDLR rebels or later on have any concessions despite the rebel group proclaiming that they have laid down weapons and are ready to talk.

READ: Confusion clouds reports of FDLR ‘surrender’

The minister also hinted at Rwanda’s frosty relations with Tanzania, saying that it all has to do with the east African country’s soft spot for the FDLR rebels.