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Blinken Navigates Complex Rwanda-Congo Tensions
During his three-nation tour of Africa, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to cease backing armed groups within eastern Congo.
Authorities in Congo and United Nations officials say Rwanda’s military is backing a renewed insurgency by the March 23 Movement, known as M23, a primarily Tutsi rebel group fighting the Congolese government in North Kivu, Congo.
Is Rwanda backing M23? According to Blinken, there are “credible reports” that Rwanda has supported M23. An unpublished report by U.N. experts confirmed the presence of Rwandan armed forces in M23 camps. It follows comments in June by top U.N. official Bintou Keita, head of the U.N. force in Congo, who warned that coordinated attacks by M23 rebels could soon overpower the mission’s capabilities.
M23 leaders demand the implementation of a 2013 pact known as the Nairobi accord, which would grant fighters amnesty from alleged war crimes and reintegration into the Congolese army—but the Congolese government has declared the group a terrorist organization.
Why the FDLR matters. Historical grievances between Congo and neighboring Rwanda stem in part from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Kigali claims Congo is supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an eastern Congo-based mainly Hutu rebel group that includes some perpetrators who were involved in the Rwandan genocide.
Mistrust has deepened among neighboring countries as over 100 militias operate in eastern Congo. Analysts say Congo’s neighbors have for years used those armed groups as proxies to gain influence and profit from the smuggling of Congo’s vast mineral wealth, which includes diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt, and coltan.
Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi allowed troops from neighboring Uganda last year to fight the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)—a Ugandan rebel coalition based in eastern Congo and, according to U.S. intelligence, is affiliated with the Islamic State. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni also accused Kigali of using M23 to hamper its battle against the ADF. Analysts believe Museveni is using the resurgent conflict as a pretext to control his own economic interests in Congo while Burundi has covertly done the same while fighting RED-Tabara, a Burundian opposition group based in eastern Congo.
“Any support or cooperation with any armed group in the eastern DRC endangers local communities and regional stability, and every country in the region must respect the territorial integrity of the others,” Blinken said. Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta responded to Blinken’s remarks by insisting that “Rwanda is not the cause of long-standing instability in eastern DRC.”
In Kigali, Blinken also raised Washington’s concerns over the detention of permanent U.S. resident Paul Rusesabagina, a critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the protagonist of the Hollywood hit Hotel Rwanda, who was sentenced to a 25-year prison term for “terrorism.” In a letter addressed to Blinken last month and seen by Foreign Policy, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would place a hold on security aid to Rwanda unless its government improves its human rights record.
Aloys Tegera, co-founder and director of research at the Pole Institute, a Goma-based think tank, believes Congolese tolerance of the FDLR is the chief driver of conflict in the region. “The FDLR in northern Kivu is a real…
Read More: Can Blinken End Congo-Rwanda Tensions?