Rwanda does not see any reason to remain a member of a regional bloc that rapes its own founding principles.
Kigali has said it is pulling out of the 11-member Economic Community of Central African States (Eccas) even when Rwanda was supposed to take up the rotating chairmanship of the bloc.
On Saturday at the bloc’s meeting in Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda was destined to take up the chairmanship but was prevented from doing so.
Rwanda said its right to take up the “chairmanship… was deliberately ignored in order to impose the DRC’s diktat”.
“No justification for remaining in an organisation whose current functioning runs counter to its founding principles and intended purpose,” Rwanda said in a statement.
It was decided that Equatorial Guinea would remain in the chairman role.
Kinshasa repeatedly accuses Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels that now control key regional cities of Goma and Bukavu in the east of DR Congo.
Rwanda says the accusations are false, instead that the country’s troops were deployed along its border to prevent the conflict spilling over into its territory.
It is not the first time Rwanda has walked away from the regional bloc of central africa states.
In 2007, Rwanda left Eccas, whose mission is to foster co-operation and strengthen regional integration in central Africa. It rejoined several years later.
