• It is not acceptable that individual member states of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), be permitted to manipulate the regional organisation against a fellow member state. As the immediate former Chair of ECCAS (February 2023-February 2024), the DRC violated the organisation’s rules to unjustly collude against Rwanda, a fact that was officially brought to the attention of the membership, to no effect. The manipulation has continued under the current Chair.
• The conflict in eastern DRC was already ongoing when the DRC assumed chairmanship of ECCAS, therefore the pretext of the conflict does not apply in justifying recent actions. It should be recalled as a fact that the DRC initiated the conflict by launching attacks against its own citizens in late 2021. The DRC has also allowed its eastern provinces to be overrun by over 200 illegal foreign and local armed groups, which constitute a security threat for neighbouring countries.
• The DRC has sustained and continues to finance and support the FDLR genocidal militia in numerous attempts to destabilise Rwanda, in violation of more than 20 UN Security Council resolutions. The most recent UN Security Council Resolution 2773 condemns the support of the DRC government to the FDLR and calls for the cessation of this support and a neutralisation of the Kinshasa-backed FDLR. Colluding with a UN-sanctioned group while evoking legality, responsibility and multilateralism is contradictory.
• The repeated cross-border shelling and incursions into Rwanda by the Congolese armed forces and FDLR, as well as President Tshisekedi’s public threats to overthrow the Government of Rwanda, directly violated Article 3 of the ECCAS Treaty on good-neighbourliness. The rights of all member states of ECCAS must be fully and equally respected.
• The DRC should focus on resolving its serious longstanding internal failings instead of making the rounds in international forums crying foul and blaming external parties.
– Rwanda remains committed to the pursuit of peace through dialogue and full participation in the African-led peace process as well as the complementary mediation initiatives of the United States Government and the State of Qatar. (End)