By Moise Bahati, KIGALI Rwanda
The African Union (AU) Peace
and Security Council has asked the AU Commission to “mobilize requisite
support” for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) military mission
in eastern DR Congo, including from its Peace Fund and the provision of equipment.Joint meeting between the military of the DRC and the SADC in Goma, 16 January 2024.
The decision to fund the SADC
mission known as SAMIDRC was made at a March 4 meeting of the AU Peace and
Security Council which discussed the conflict in eastern DR Congo, where a
government-led coalition is fighting the M23 rebels.
The SADC force, made up of
troops from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania, is part of the coalition which
also includes Burundian soldiers, and militias like the FDLR, a terrorist group
formed by remnants of the perpetrators of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in
Rwanda.
The UN-sanctioned militia is
also accused spreading genocide ideology against Congolese Tutsi communities
in eastern DR Congo.
Prior to the meeting, Rwanda had expressed concerns about AU’s support to SAMIDRC,
saying the decision “would undermine peaceful settlement” of the decades-long
crisis in eastern DR Congo.
In a letter sent to AU
Commission chairperson, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Biruta
said AU support to the SADC forces “can only exacerbate the conflict.”
“SAMIDRC as an offensive force
in coalition with these elements cannot substitute for a political process that
has been blocked by the Government of [DR Congo]. Therefore, the African Union
is urged to not ‘authorise’ or fund SAMIDRC,” Biruta said.
Biruta said the Rwandan
government’s position was that “the conflict has persisted in eastern DR Congo
because the international community has deliberately ignored the root causes,
which include support to and preservation of Rwandan genocidal forces in eastern
DR Congo.”
Added to that he said was the
“refusal of the government of DR Congo to address genuine grievances of the
Congolese Tutsi, and refusal to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Congolese
refugees scattered in the region.”
Rwanda hosts over 100,000
refugees from DR Congo, some of whom have spent 28 years in camps.
Rwanda is also part of the
AU-backed Luanda process that is mediated by Angola’s President Joao Lourenço,
and through which seeks to restore diplomatic relations between DR Congo and
Rwanda, which were affected by the conflict in North Kivu province.
The AU said it still supported
the Luanda process and its sister initiative known as the Nairobi process,
which is led by the East African Community.
In the statement, however, the
AU Peace and Security Council failed to mention Rwanda, only referring to it
and DR Congo as “the two sisterly countries.”
It called for immediate and
unconditional cessation of hostilities, noting “worsening insecurity due to the
debilitating activities of M23, ADF, FDLR, other negative forces and armed
groups in the eastern DRC and the resultant dire humanitarian situation that
continues to adversely impact the population in affected communities.”
Eastern DR Congo has been
volatile for nearly 30 years and remains home to more than 130 armed groups.
Multiple interventions have failed to end decades of violence.
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