Several Western Chancellery, including Paris, Brussels and Berlin, have denounced Kigali’s support to the rebels of the March 23 Movement.
by MO12345lemonde Afrique
He is the big absent from the family photo of the presidents invited to the US-Africa Summit. While his counterpart, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, appears, smiling, behind US head of state Joe Biden, Rwandan Paul Kagame was represented by his Prime Minister. Sign that the distrust that reigns between Kigali and Kinshasa, since the resurgence of the March 23 movement (M23) in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the end of 2021, has echoes outside the Great Lakes.
During the closure of the meeting in Washington, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, called Rwanda to “use his influence” to convince the rebels of the M23 to lay down their arms. For the first time, Monday, December 19, Paris also officially denounced Kigali’s “support” to this armed group, Germany followed suit Tuesday afternoon. A position already expressed by several European chancelleries, including Belgium.
a killing that has “horrified”
The many calls from Félix Tshisekedi to the international community have been heard? For several months, Kinshasa has denounced “Rwandan aggression” on his territory and the support brought by Kigali to the insurgents. The latter now occupy a large part of the territory of Rutshuru, in the rich mining province of North Kivu, on the border of Uganda and Rwanda. Culpable of innumerable abuses, the M23 is accused, in a preliminary report of the UN, of having killed at least 131 civilians, including 17 women and 12 children, on November 29 and 30 in the village of Kishishe.
We still do not know the exact assessment of this killing which “horrified” Western chancelleries. According to the Congolese government, 272 people died during this period. A figure “manipulated for political reasons” according to the M23, which only recognizes the death of eight inhabitants. For the time being, no independent investigator has been able to go to the scene of the drama. The area is always under control of the M23.
Only two journalists – a Rwandan and a Belgian – went on the spot in early December. Albert Rudatsimburwa, former director of Radio Contact FM, and Marc Hoogsteyns, founder of the Kivu Press Agency news agency, made the trip from Kigali – where they are based – supervised by the insurgents. This press trip organized on Congolese soil, without accreditation, made Kinshasa jump. The Ministry of Communication immediately denounced, in a statement of December 12, “the new Rwanda lie campaign to truncate the facts” and emphasized “media collaboration” between Kigali and M23.
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