Why are Rwanda, DR Congo having diplomatic spat?
Last Monday, hundreds of activists from citizens’ movements and youth groups in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), participated in an anti-Rwanda protest and accused Kigali of supporting the M23 rebel group in eastern DRC.
The demonstrators were asking for an end to diplomatic relations with Rwanda and the expulsion of its ambassador stationed in Kinshasa.
“It is the first time in 20 years that we have had our government named explicitly Rwanda as the aggressor in eastern Congo,” Maud-Salomé Ekila, an activist with Panzi Foundation and one of the protest’s organisers, told Al Jazeera.
“So this was an open door for citizen movement to encourage them to continue to resist and take strong decisions.”
On the weekend, Kinshasa summoned Rwanda’s ambassador and suspended flights from its neighbour “with immediate effect” after accusing it of supporting the M23 rebel group active in its eastern region. “Suspicions are crystallising that the M23 has received support from Rwanda,” DRC government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Kigali, which had already accused Congolese security forces of firing rockets into its territory, said two Rwandan soldiers had been kidnapped on patrol and were being held by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – another rebel group active in eastern DRC.
“We call upon authorities of the DRC that work closely with these genocidal armed groups to secure the release of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) soldiers,” the country’s military said in a statement.
A historical tiff
Relations between both countries have been strained since the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, as there was a mass inflow of Rwandans to eastern DRC.
However, that seemingly began to change after DRC President Felix Tshisekedi took office in 2019.
In April, the country was admitted into the East African Community, which includes Burundi, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. The seven states are also part of the broader International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
It was welcomed as a new opportunity for partnership between the DRC and its neighbours in the east.
“Admission of DRC is seen as a chance to explore new trade dynamics”, Nelleke van de Walle, the project director for the Great Lakes region at International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.
Also beyond trade, it seemed like the groundwork for regional collaboration in tackling longstanding conflict in parts of the mineral-rich DRC, whose large size has provided fertile ground for dozens of rebel groups.
In the weeks after DRC’s integration, the body commenced negotiations at a summit in Nairobi with dozens of rebel groups in the eastern DRC – including the infamous M23 – to discuss the terms for an amnesty deal.
