Rwanda has rubbished allegegations by France that it supports the Congolese armed group M23.
The French Embassy in DRC, on its Twitter handle, alleged that Rwanda supports M23, but did not provide any evidence.
The office of the government spokeperson said in a statement on Wednesday that the allegations are wrong and it is a distraction from the real cause of conflict in Eastern DRC.
“It is a mistake to conflate the measures that Rwanda has put in place to guard its borders with support for any particular armed group in DRC,” the government reacted in a statement noting that “the tied old blame game undermines ongoing efforts by regional leaders to find lasting peace, particularly the Nairobi and Luanda initiatives, to which Rwanda is fully committed.”
Rwanda said it has the right to territorial integrity and reserves the right to defend its borders and citizens against cross-border attacks.
“Rwanda’s territorial integrity has been consistently violated over the year by both the FARDC and FDLR, including a brutal attack in October 2019 in Kinigi, a tourist area in Northern Rwanda, that killed 14 innocent villagers; several cross border rocket shelling incidents earlier this year; incursions into Rwanda by soldiers of the Congolese armed; and an airspace violation by a Congolese fighter jet in November. This is an addition to the targeting of Rwanda’s border areas by FDLR as they fight alongside the FADRC against other armed groups in Eastern DRC,” the statement adds.
Fresh allegations surfaced on Tuesday by France’s Embassy in DRC that openly accused Rwanda of supporting the revel group, but did not provide eveidence.
“The sensationalized “Kishishe massacre”, a fabrication of the DRC government that it attributed to M23, has quickly spread without any investigation of the facts by any credible entity, despite indications that the incident was in fact an armed confrontation between M23 and illegal armed groups allied to FARDC.
This is symbolic of how the mess in the DRC has been encouraged and sustained for decades.”
The United Nations peacekeeping operation currently under MONUSCO has been present in Eastern DRC for more than 22 years at the cost of over US$1 billion a year with little tangible results.
“Blaming Rwanda reflects unwillingness on the part of the international community to face up to the root causes of conflict in Eastern DRC, and to demand true accountability from the state and non–state actors who are responsible for the resulting legacy of failure,” the statement said.
