The Democratic Republic of Congo’s foreign minister told AFP Thursday that US sanctions on Rwanda were justified as Kigali had failed to withdraw its troops from Kinshasa’s territory as pledged.
Rwanda signed the Washington agreement and has been consistently violating them,” she said. “We think it’s very important to have sanctions. First of all, the sanctions establish the truth! Former president Joseph Kabila this month joined forces with the Rwanda-backed M23 movement to take a direct role in an insurgency ravaging the DRC’s mineral-rich east, returning to the fray at a febrile time for Congolese politics.
Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said DR Congo had made progress in its promise, made under the same US-brokered deal with Rwanda, to neutralise a militia that Kigali says is a cross-border threat. Wagner said Kinshasa had “committed” to neutralise the FDLR and “eliminate the pretext that Kigali has been using and recycling for over 30 years in order to violate our territorial integrity and in order to occupy parts of our country”. The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on the Rwandan defence ministry and a financial institution in the central African country over their alleged ties to the M23 armed group fighting in DR Congo.
Taking aim at the government in Kinshasa, the new Kabila-helmed Front for the Refoundation of the Nation vowed to put “an end to tyranny by any means, including force”. Referring to Kabila and the supposed backing of foreign countries, Wagner said: “Aiding and abetting a criminal has consequences.
