Rwanda should not be a “scapegoat” for events in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda’s foreign minister said Wednesday, as the neighbours battle over responsibility for fighting in eastern DR Congo.
DR Congo has been beset by conflict for three decades, most recently an armed insurgency by the M23 armed group that the DR Congo government and UN experts say is backed by Rwanda.
“The situation in the DRC, the political situation, the security situation, is mainly a Congolese issue,” Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told AFP on the sidelines of a Russia-Africa summit in Moscow, before the US sanctions were imposed. Nduhungirehe also pushed back at Kinshasa’s allegations that former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila was a Rwandan “proxy”, after he joined forces with M23 this month. “It is a political issue that must be settled politically between the Congolese,” Nduhungirehe said. Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands have sought to create such a centre, but have not yet said where.
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on the Rwandan defence ministry and a Rwandan financial institution over their alleged support for M23.
An agreement between Rwanda and the five European countries could be signed as early as next month, according to three people in Europe briefed on the negotiations.
