Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday said the country will now no longer offer refuge to people fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), stoking already high tensions between the two African countries, reported The Africa News.
The continuing violence in the eastern part of the mineral-rich DRC pits federal troops against the M23 rebel group, which has captured swathes of territory.
The DRC, the United States, the United Nations, and several European countries have repeatedly accused Rwanda of supporting the Tutsi-led M23 rebel group, although Kigali denies the charge. Rwanda, on the other hand, accuses the DRC government of backing the FDLR – a descendant of Rwandan Hutu extremist groups that carried out the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.
In a report published last month, UN-mandated experts said they had substantial evidence of direct intervention by the Rwandan Defence Forces (RDF) on the DRC territory at least between November 2021 and October 2022.
Tensions have soared in the DRC forcing thousands of people to flee the battles into neighboring states, including Rwanda. According to the UN, around 72,000 Congolese crossed into Rwanda in November alone.
“We cannot keep hosting refugees,” from DR Congo, the Rwandan president told the upper house of parliament in the capital Kigali. “This is not Rwanda’s problem. And we are going to ensure that everybody realizes that it is not Rwanda’s problem.”
He said Rwanda will not carry this burden.
Rwanda has also accused the DRC, where presidential elections are due next December, of using the conflict for political purposes as well as of fabricating a November massacre of at least 131 civilians. A probe by the UN blamed M23 rebels for the deaths.
An agreed ceasefire and the deployment of the East African Community (EAC) force, led by Kenya, have so far failed to cease the bloodshed.
