Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame on Wednesday night told the East African Community (EAC) heads of state that in order to resolve the crisis in eastern Congo, the M23 and the Democratic Republic of Congo President must participate in the peace process.
During a virtual extraordinary session chaired by Kenyan President William Ruto, President Kagame expressed concern that the Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who skipped the meeting, left the Rwandan leader wondering whether there would be a solution to the escalating war in eastern Congo.
Seven of the eight members of the summit – Ruto, Kagame, Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Salva Kiir (South Sudan), Sheikh Mohamud (Somalia), Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi) and Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) – attended the meeting.
President Kagame was curt and direct, telling his colleagues: “Even if all of us were doing everything right, nothing is going to come out of it, until those mainly concerned are also part of it, participating and contributing to the success of the process through which they are getting the support.”
Kinshasa rejects direct negotiations with the M23, which it considers a terrorist group.
While Tshisekedi snubbed the EAC virtual meeting he flew to Harare, Zimbabwe to attend a similar meeting of the Southern African Development Community.
“Mr Chairman, your excellencies… Want us, whatever we are saying and whatever we intend to do we capture the context rightly and then proceed based on that, and maybe we can get somewhere. Otherwise, if we keep saying good things to each other, being nice, and then each one fulfilling their own interests other than the common interests we have as East Africans, then I don’t see how we are going to contribute effectively to finding a solution,” President Kagame said.
The M23 rebel group, backed by Rwanda, has captured the key city of Goma in eastern DR Congo, forcing tens of thousands to flee.
Explosions rocked the city on Sunday night, with the DRC accusing Rwanda of waging war, while Kigali claims Kinshasa supports anti-regime militias.
Kagame’s government has long denied supporting M23, despite reports by United Nations expert insisting that it does.
Kagame says militias backed by the DRC, including Rwandan genocidaires FDLR, were responsible for the unrest in eastern Congo.
“They have displaced people, they have killed people, they have persecuted them on a daily basis for who they are. We have refugees who have been here for the last twenty plus years, just dislocated from Congo and sent to Rwanda because they say these are ethnic Tutsis, therefore, they belong to Rwanda, they don’t belong there,” he explained.
According to Rwandan leader, the fighting has claimed DRC’s own citizens.
He charged that the SADC mission had taken sides against the M23.
“We have Monusco, we have SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SamiDRC), we have mercenaries, we have Burundi, we have FDLR that has joined them, and everybody is there watching this thing and we pretend like we don’t understand what has been going on for all these years?”
He condemned the decision to withdraw the East Africa Community Regional Force at the behest of the DRC’s President.
He criticised South Africa’s leadership of the SADC force.
South African leader President Cyril Ramaphosa had taken to social media platform X earlier Wednesday announcing that his nation lost 13 soldiers who were part of a peacekeeping mission in DRC, and called on the involved parties to silence the guns.
“Following the recent intensification of fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa has lost 13 brave soldiers who were dedicated to their mission and committed to peace,” President Ramaphosa said.
“The fighting is the result of an escalation by the rebel group M23 and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) militia engaging the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and attacking peacekeepers from the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SamiDRC).”
Ramaphosa said that the territorial integrity of the DRC must be respected in accordance with the United Nations Charter on the respect of sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of other states.
This is the statement that President Kagame was responding to when he said: “A few important clarifications for the record: The Rwanda Defence Force is an army, not a militia, Secondly, SamiDRC is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation. It was authorised by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC Government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself.”
“President Ramaphosa confirmed to me that M23 did not kill the soldiers from South Africa, FARDC did. If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.”
The summit resolved to form a joint EAC-SADC initiative to seek peace in the Congo.
