Kinshasa said on Wednesday that it nolonger feels part of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie a grouping comprising 88 member states and governments founded on March 20, 1970.
“We do not feel sufficiently considered because we are the first basin of the Francophonie in the world in terms of speakers, we come ahead of France,” said Patrick Muyaya the spokesperson of DRC government.
DRC which is currently at loggerheads with Rwanda which it accuses of supporting the M23 rebels, doesn’t feel comfortable with being a member of this La Francophonie organisation which is headed by Louise Mushikiwabo a Rwandan national.
For several years, the Democratic Republic of Congo has maintained particularly tense relations with the management of the OIF, regularly criticizing the organization’s Secretary General, Louise Mushikiwabo, whom it accuses of bias in favour of Rwanda in the conflict between the two countries.
“We had played the games of the Francophonie where the Secretary General was waiting to be invited to come for an activity which was under her direction,” Muyaya noted.
According to Muyaya, the Francophonie does not belong not to a State. “Unfortunately in the current Francophonie, we confuse Mushikiwabo’s former role as head of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda and Secretary General of the Francophonie where we cannot pronounce clearly without ambiguity and work to be sure that at within the Greater Francophone Community, there are no Congolese people dying or being killed as it is happening,” Muyaya explained during a press briefing on Tuesday.
The DRC will also reflect on the benefits it can derive from the Francophonie as an instrument serving strategic interests. According to Patrick Muyaya, the opinion of a section of the Congolese population has always called for departure within this organization.
“Obviously we are going to evaluate and if in the evaluation that is made we say we must withdraw from the Francophonie because it was already an option that was proposed by several parliamentarians in view of the attitude of organization.”
There will be mechanisms or decisions that can be taken when these evaluations are completely finished. We must consider that this is an opportunity for France mainly and other French-speaking countries, knowing the central role of the DRC, to “act because the option of leaving the Francophonie, for many Congolese, cannot be excluded when they do not feel enough solidarity, compassion in relation to the tragedies that we are experiencing”, he said.
For this year’s 2024 edition, the day of March 20 was placed under the theme: “Create, innovate, undertake in French”.
However, in DRC they have organised special television programs under the theme: “The Francophonie that we want”, aimed at discussing the benefits of belonging to the Francophonie and the actions to be undertaken. to strengthen the position of the DRC within the French-speaking world.
