Rwanda has announced that it is deeply concerned about the behavior of the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC) that continues to ignore the Luanda and Nairobi agreements, as well as the attitude of indifference shown by the international community to the provocative actions of the DRC and cooperation between this country and the FDLR.
These concerns are contained in a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Rwanda on February 18, 2024,
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Rwanda, expressed that these concerns are based on the fact that in recent days, the RDC has increased military operations in North Kivu Province, which is against the resolutions adopted in the meeting. different regions of the District, and it appears that the purpose of these actions is to expel from the territory of the RDC the M23 group and the Congolese civilians who speak Kinyarwanda, and scatter them in the countries of the District.
It shows that the RDC is collaborating with the FDLR group that participated in the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994,
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, says that the attacks of the M23 group in recent days were caused by the decision of the government of the DRC to expel from its territory the East African army in December 2023, which was responsible for to review the implementation of the international agreement and to respond to certain issues that were covered by this chapter.
Rwanda says that the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has the responsibility to protect and preserve the life and dignity of the Congolese speaking Rwandan. The neglect of this responsibility by the DRC government has caused security problems in the entire district that will last for 30 years.
Rwanda has also strengthened the rhetoric of hatred and racism that continues to be the weapon of the state politicians led by President Félix Tshisekedi, and the acts of racism, harassment, imprisonment, and murder continue to be a habit and the FDLR terrorist group who is working openly with the RDC (FARDC) forces, as has been shown by UN expert reports.
The statement says: “All this threatens the security of Rwanda. Because of all these issues, Rwanda has not agreed to show its position on the M23 issue, that it should be resolved through political channels, and done by the Congolese themselves.”
The government of Rwanda has also stated that it has put in place measures to protect its security, based on the fact that leaders including the military and President Tshisekedi himself have publicly declared that they want to start a war on Rwanda.
Rwanda says that it will no longer allow the problem of RDC to cross the border and come to the territory of Rwanda. Government and military leaders in the DRC, including President Félix Tshisekedi himself, have not stopped publicly declaring their desire to invade Rwanda and change the Government by force. “Rwanda cannot ignore these words, which is why it has put effort into its security.”
Rwanda points out that for this reason it has taken measures to protect its security, including ways to improve Rwanda’s air defense, and to closely manage military operations in the air on the other hand, after it was found that the RDC used China-made CH-4 drones in attacks in 2023, as well as aerial bombing of Rwanda by Congolese warplanes.
In this announcement, Rwanda criticized the US Government that recently released the information contained in the announcement of February 17, 2024, deliberately ignoring all the evidence, and contradicting, in every way, the program that was launched by the US Intelligence Service in In November 2023, he had given a good line to settle the dispute.
Rwanda’s statement says that “Rwanda will request an explanation from the United States Government in order to determine if this statement means that the country is getting back on track, or if it is because the authorities did not share information as it should.”
In the announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Rwanda, the United States, it was revealed that in December 2001, it was the one that put the FDLR (which was known as “ALIR, Interahamwe, Ex-FAR) on the list of groups of terrorism, after this group killed and raped eight tourists, including two Americans, in the Bwindi area of Uganda.
The announcement says: “Ignoring this, and treating the FDLR genocidal group, as an ordinary ‘armed group, approved by the countries of the region and the Government of the RDC’, is a sad act and shows only political interests, and it provokes doubts about the ability of the United States as an impartial mediator in the problems of the Great Lakes Region.”