President Paul Kagame has urged his counterparts from the East African Community (EAC) to pull in the same direction and avoid being manipulated in attempts to find a solution to the security challenges blighting DR Congo.
He was speaking at a crisis summit that brought together heads of state of the EAC to discuss the escalating security situation in the eastern part of DR Congo, which saw the North Kivu provincial capital Goma fall to Congolese rebel group M23 earlier this week.
Held virtually, the summit was convened by Kenyan President William Ruto in his capacity as the current chair of the bloc.
The military confrontation close to the Rwandan border also saw Congolese government forces and their coalition allies, including the genocidal FDLR militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, shell the Rwandan border city of Rubavu, killing at least 13 people and injuring hundreds of others.
In his remarks at Wednesday’s EAC crisis meeting, President Kagame said that, while the regional leaders have been articulate when it came to stating the problems in DR Congo – also an EAC member – the actions towards resolving these problems have often been in sharp contrast.
He particularly cited the lack of leadership in the process to find solutions to the DR Congo crisis.
“Is there anybody among us who did not see this coming?” Kagame posed. “I for one I saw it coming…because I did not see who was taking charge of the process, who was listening, or who was trying to provide any kind of guidance as to what we should be doing from one thing to another.”
DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi boycotted the meeting, with his country not represented altogether.
Kagame said the lack of representation on the part of DR Congo was itself a challenge because the EAC leaders were discussing matters concerning the same country.
“And the country is supposed to be part of the East African Community…so I am not sure what bearing what we are discussing has on what happens in the process of finding a solution in this country.”
Kagame said Tshisekedi was manipulating other leaders, blaming this for the failure of previous attempts by the EAC bloc to find a lasting solution to DR Congo crisis, including through the deployment of the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) in November 2022.
The force, which had managed to secure a ceasefire for at least six months, would later be expelled by Tshisekedi, who was unhappy that it had not joined his coalition attacks on M23 positions — a move that would have violated the force’s rules of engagement as a neutral actor.
“Tshisekedi felt we were not doing what he wanted, he went to SADC (Southern African Development Community), which agreed to come and do what he wanted, so he sent everybody else packing,” the Rwandan president recalled. “And that we complied with and kept quiet, what did we expect to come out of that?”
The EAC force, in which Rwanda was not playing part, had been deployed to eastern DR Congo to help oversee the implementation of inter-Congolese Nairobi Peace Process, an effort that was itself undermined by Kinshasa when it rejected having the M23 in the negotiations.
Kagame said it was imperative that the EAC leaders had a common understanding of the issue at hand or risk continuing to be manipulated by those who may promise to take care of their individual interests, at the expense of the interests and mutual benefits of the people of EAC as a community.
“But even if we were doing everything right, all of us, nothing is going to come out of it until those mainly concerned are part of it and participating and contributing to the success of the process through which they are getting the support.”
Kagame said military means will never be the best solution to the prevailing security challenges, but rather genuine dialogue. However, he warned that such processes should not be an end in themselves, saying what matters most is the outcome of those processes.
“I don’t understand how Tshisekedi keeps thinking that he will resolve the problems to do with rights of people militarily…kill them, shoot them, bring forces that are ready to help, like Burundi, I don’t know whether that has been helpful the last few weeks they have been doing that.”
Burundian troops are part of a cocktail of forces fighting alongside the Congolese army – which also includes FDLR, the UN-sanctioned terrorist group founded by perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in which at least a million people lost their lives; SADC forces; European mercenaries; and a myriad of local militia groups.
Kagame added: “I want us, whatever we are saying, and whatever we intend to do, we capture the context rightly and then proceed based on that, then we can get somewhere.
“But if we keep saying good things to each other and being nice and each one fulfilling their own interests other than the common interests of East Africans, then I don’t see how we are going to contribute effectively to finding a solution.
“But to have had East African Community expelled from eastern Congo and everybody complied and kept quiet as if it was normal and that everything is being dictated by the person we are trying to help, I did not understand that, and that is why we are where we are.”
