President João Lourenço of Angola will on Wednesday host and mediate talks between President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Felix Tshisekedi of DRCongo.
“They will be discussing Rwanda’s aggression in Congo,” said Patrick Muyaya, the Congolese government spokesman.
The Kinshasa government has continuously accused Rwanda of backing the M23 rebels that have exerted lethal force against FARDC troops forcing them to flee as the rebels seize larger territory and a major border town, Bunagana.
The rebels have continued to gun their way further into the interior of the mineral rich eastern Province of the country.
The rebels have accused President Felix Tshisekedi of refusing to respect the Nairobi agreement he signed with them but instead ordered the army to launch attacks on the rebel bases.
Asked whether Congo still believes Rwandan troops are fighting alongside M23 rebels in eastern Congo, Muyaya replied, “That is obvious.”
However, Kigali has rejected the accusations of supporting M23 rebels.
During a televised interview on Monday, President Kagame accused the Kinshasa regime for working with FDLR rebel group composed of perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi that claimed a million lives.
“It is not acceptable that FDLR would be supported to cross into Rwanda or shell our territory and kill citizens. We have not done that to Congo,” the President Kagame said via the national broadcaster.
However, Patrick Muyaya on Tuesday denied that his government was backing FDLR rebels, “Why would Congo be supporting them to shell Rwanda territory? Those accusations are not true.”
President Kagame indicated that the FDLR should have been eliminated long ago but Kinshasa has kept them around.
“Recently, these FDLR (elements) are fighting alongside DRC Forces, FARDC, against M23. And then to make it worse, Monusco-the UN Force on the ground got into the mix…,” Kagame said, adding that the FDLR should have been fought and eliminated from that situation and repatriating them to Rwanda.
“There is a need to address this problem of kinyarwanda speaking congolese including the so called M23. That is the problem of the DRC to solve, not mine,” President Kagame said.
The two leaders on Wednesday will fly to Luanda, Angola to discuss bilateral relations and the armed conflict in eastern Congo.President João Lourenço of Angola will mediate these talks between Rwanda and DRC.
