The situation in the fragile eastern Democratic Republic Congo appeared to escalate during the week amid reports that Rwanda is massing troops at its border with Kinshasa to defend its territory against attacks by the Congolese army.

On Friday, DR Congo’s M23 rebels said they were suspending fighting with Congo’s army and withdrawing from the area where clashes have been heavy in recent days.

Early this month, Kinshasa expelled Brig Gen Geoffrey Muhesi, the commander of the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism, which regional leaders set up in September 2012 to monitor and address cross-border issues between Rwanda and the DR Congo.

In particular, it was supposed to look into allegations of supporting rebels, external aggression, and illegal exploitation of natural resources levelled against Kigali.

(Read: UN attack force starts work in DRC)
Brig Gen Muhesi was asked to leave Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu and the epicentre of the seemingly endless conflict, where the Mechanism is headquartered, shortly after the extraordinary meeting of leaders from the Great Lakes region held in Nairobi, Kenya on July 31 — the sixth such summit in one year that regional leaders have convened to resolve the conflict.

Although Ugandan government officials would not divulge the reasons for his expulsion, sources who attended the Nairobi meeting have told The EastAfrican that the Congolese government expressed dissatisfaction with the nature of the Mechanism’s reports that criticised Kinshasa for “aggressive behaviour” and “questionable commitment” to peaceful solutions to end the conflict.

“The Mechanism is still on. Brig Gen Muhesi was just a commander. The Congolese brought accusations against him, we asked them to prove them, but they have not. Now I hear they have declared him persona non grata. We are still waiting for the Congolese government to produce evidence that supports their accusations,” Dr Crispus Kiyonga, Uganda’s Defence Minister and chief facilitator of the Kampala talks, told The EastAfrican.

“DR Congo is part of the 11-member verification team, and they sign on the Mechanism’s reports. If you don’t like the chair, this is not for us to deal with. The Mechanism is the work of the ICGLR [International Conference on the Great Lakes Region],” James Mugume, Permanent Secretary at Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The EastAfrican when asked whether there was any diplomatic détente being pursued over the matter.

The Mechanism was supposed to be reconfigured as the implementing agency of the resolutions from the Kampala peace negotiations, between the Congolese government and M23 rebels, which have all but hit a dead end. This is in spite of the fact that there is a draft peace agreement, which was consolidated from each side’s final presentations.

Inasmuch as Ugandan government officials insist Brig Gen Muhesi’s expulsion does not affect the Mechanism’s work, analysts say the symbolism of it is not lost on anyone, much less his colleagues. “Do you think they feel safe or even welcome?” a source who has closely engaged with the conflict told The EastAfrican.

The Mechanism is in the spotlight after the UN Security Council tasked it on Thursday to carry out “thorough investigations” into reports that mortar shells and bombs were repeatedly fired from the DR Congo into Rwandan territory. Rwanda claims that a total of 34 bombs and rockets have been fired into Rwanda in the past week by a combined force comprising the Congolese army and elements from FDLR, which it accuses of the 1994 genocide.

These attacks have kicked off a fresh row between Rwanda and DR Congo after Kigali called them a “sustained strategy of provocation” designed to draw Rwanda into its internal conflict.

“Rwanda is the most willing signatory to the peace and security framework and we have done everything we can to contribute durable peace in the eastern DRC. But we will not stand by while the army of one of the signatories continues to shell civilian targets in Rwanda,” Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in statement on Thursday.

Defending territory

But the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the DR Congo told the Security Council that the firing incidents in question originated from the rebel M23 positions, and that it had “not witnessed any Congolese Armed Forces firing into Rwanda territory during this period.”

Ms Mushikiwabo, however, insisted, “We have the capacity to determine who fired at us and we will not hesitate to defend our territory. Rwanda has a responsibility to protect its population.”

On Thursday, anxious Kigali residents lined the roads to gaze at a convoy of more than 20 armoured tanks, several other heavy arms, and truckloads full of soldiers as they snaked through the city towards the western border town of Rubavu, which has suffered the most shelling.

Rwanda’s insistence that Kinshasa is in cahoots with FDLR is one of the reasons it can use to justify military moves against its neighbour, say sources privy to the goings on in Kigali, adding that for a while now Rwanda has maintained a high military alert as it watches Kinshasa’s moves.

“It is hypocritical for the international community to talk about protecting civilians when FARDC [the Congolese army] together with FDLR are causing harm to our citizens as if the lives of Rwandans have no value. The attacks by FARDC and FDLR have now reached another level,” Ms Mushikiwabo said in her statement.

By Gaaki Kigambo and Edmund Kagire