DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda President Paul Kagame will meet for talks today, Wednesday in the Angolan capital Luanda.
The talks will be mediated by H.E. João Lourenço, the Angolan President and Chairman of the International Conference for Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
DR Congo and Rwanda have been at loggerheads since the M23 rebel group resumed fighting against FARDC (DRC’s Army).
“Rwanda’s military support alongside the M23 being obvious, this is an opportunity for the President of the Republic to tell the aggressor country face-to-face to cease its support,” Giscard Kusema, DRC’s deputy director of the presidential press, told the media on Tuesday, July 5.
Kusema, the deputy coordinator of the presidential communication unit, was commenting on President Tshisekedi’s visit to Luanda where he will take part in the tripartite summit with his Angolan counterpart Lourenço and Kagame. The three Heads of State will discuss the security situation in the DRC.
“The President of the Republic is resolutely committed to finding a lasting solution to the security crisis in the eastern provinces of the DRC. We can understand the anger of each other in the face of these repeated attacks. But to put an end to these conflicts, President Tshisekedi has opted for diplomatic and military means, and the Luanda summit takes into account the diplomatic aspect,” Kusema is quoted by Radio Okapi as saying.
‘No problem’ excluding Rwanda from EAC force
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said Monday he had “no problem” with his troops being excluded from a proposed regional force for the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
"I wish for the best for all of us, Congo and Rwanda. But if the best doesn’t come, it should always find me prepared for the worst." President Kagame | #Kwibohora28 pic.twitter.com/u8gjHZhiMg
— Presidency | Rwanda (@UrugwiroVillage) July 4, 2022
“The third meeting we had in Nairobi was about having a force that Rwanda is not going to be part of, which I have no problem with,” Kagame told the state-run Rwanda Broadcasting Agency.
“Victory will come when you have solved the crisis and these political problems, not because you could not allow Rwanda (to be part of the force),” Kagame said in a video.
East African leaders agreed at a meeting in Kenya last month to deploy a joint force to quell fighting in the east of DRC but Kinshasa insisted it would not accept the presence of Rwandan troops, blaming Kigali for backing a resurgent rebel group M23.
Kagame claims the rebels were Congolese: “What is happening there is an internal crisis that touches the persecution of Congolese people.”
“On records and with facts, DRC has been supporting FDLR, and unfortunately with the help of MONUSCO. That is how it happened that they were shelling our territory,” said Kagame in his Kwibohora speech.
He added: “I wish for the best for all of us, Congo and Rwanda. But if the best doesn’t come, it should always find me prepared for the worst.”
“On records and with facts, DRC has been supporting FDLR, and unfortunately with the help of MONUSCO. That is how it happened that they were shelling our territory.” President Kagame. pic.twitter.com/u5VYrTRrlK
— Presidency | Rwanda (@UrugwiroVillage) July 5, 2022
