Since the resumption of violence at the end of 2021, perpetrated by the militias of the M23 in the east of the DRC, 72,000 people have crossed the Rwandan border.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
Rwanda can no longer welcome refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), plagued by the violence of armed groups in the east of the country, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Monday, January 9. This announcement is the latest episode of the strong tensions between Kigali and Kinshasa.
In the east of the DRC, unstable region, rich in mining resources, the fighting between government forces and rebels of the March 23 movement (M23), an old Tutsi rebellion, exacerbated tensions with neighboring Rwanda, which The DRC accuses of encouraging the militia. Kigali denies any involvement.
These violence has prompted many Congolese to migrate to neighboring countries, including Rwanda. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Rwanda had some 72,000 Congolese refugees in November 2022.
“We cannot continue to welcome refugees” from DRC, said Paul Kagame in front of the Senate, continuing: “This is not the problem of Rwanda. And we will make sure that all world realizes that this is not the problem of Rwanda. “” I refuse that Rwanda supports this burden, “he added. Hidden = “True”>
In a report published in December 2022, experts mandated by the United Nations claim to have collected “substantial evidence” demonstrating “the direct intervention of the Rwandan defense forces (DRF) on the territory of the DRC”, at least Between November 2021 and October 2022. The European Union called on Rwanda to “stop supporting M23”.
instrumentalize the conflict
Rwanda has repeatedly attributed responsibility for the crisis in eastern DRC to the authorities of Kinshasa and accused the international community of looking at its supposed support for the Liberation Democratic Forces of Rwanda (FDLR ), a movement of Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of which are involved in the Tutsi genocide in 1994 in Rwanda.
Presented as a threat by Kigali, the existence of this militia and the violence it inflicts on civilians have justified the Rwandan interventions in Congolese territory.
Rwanda accused the DRC, where the presidential election is scheduled for December 2023, of instrumentalizing the conflict for electoral purposes and of having “made” a massacre which, according to a United Nations investigation, was committed November by the M23 and cost the life of at least 131 civilians in the villages of Kishishe and Bambo, according to a still provisional assessment.
Diplomatic initiatives have been launched to try to resolve the east crisis of the DRC where an East African regional force, led by Kenya, is being deployed.