President Paul Kagame
President Paul Kagame says the ongoing regional efforts and initiatives to bring peace in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will not bear fruits, unless the unhelpful approach of the international community changes significantly.
In his end of year address to the nation, December 31, the Head of State pointed out that the International Community members speak truth in whispers, afraid to displease the Congolese government, and compromises their own interest, but embolden leaders of DRC to take further drastic steps to consolidate its populist base, which ends up hurting their own people.
“There are regional initiatives led by the President of Angola, President João Lourenço, President of Burundi, President Ndayishimiye, and the former President of Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta. I thank these leaders, as well as leaders of the East African Community, for the crucial work they are undertaking, which Rwanda fully supports. We also recommend them for agreeing to deploy a force to help stabilize Eastern Congo,” President Kagame said.
“However, these efforts will not bear fruits, unless the unhelpful approach of the International Community changes significantly. It is disappointing that the international community pays lip service to peace, and actually ends up complicating matters which undermines the regional process,” he added.
On current RDC-M23 turmoil, Rwanda accuses DRC of supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) who fled the country after committing the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
This militia have been fighting within the Congolese government forces (FARDC) ranks, thus sustaining hatred against the Kinyarwanda speaking community of DRC.
This forced a rebellion from Mouvement du 23 Mars, commonly known as M23 to take the arms in defence of the community since two decades ago.
DRC has been accusing Rwanda of supporting the rebellion currently in war against FARDC and their allies. Rwanda denies this allegation and calls it only a scapegoat of the massive country with fragile political leadership.
To stabilize the Eastern DRC, the East African Community (EAC) member countries have deployed a joint force to play a peacekeeping role. However, so far these efforts have been futile.
On this matter, President Kagame added that after the UN spending tens of billions of dollars on peace keeping for two decades, security situation in Congo is worse than ever, with some international community blaming Rwanda, even when they know that the responsibility primarily lies with the DRC government.
“With these external actors who refuse to address the root cause of the problem, nowhere else. This is a very expensive lie, which makes no logical sense,” President Kagame stated.
As Rwandans continue to celebrate entry into 2023, the Head of State went on guaranteeing security, saying that the country will be safe and secure because it is paramount.
“I want to assure Rwandans that our country will continue to be safe and secure in 2023. There is no doubt about that,” he said.
“No country can accept this. Rwanda will never accept this as normal, and will always respond appropriately because our security and stability are paramount,” he stated.
