The United States told Rwanda and Congo that they \u201cmust walk back from the brink of war,\u201d the sharpest warning yet of a looming conflict between the African neighbours. US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood delivered the warning at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called by France as violence has worsened in Congo\u2019s mineral-rich east which borders Rwanda.<\/p>\n
Wood said Rwanda and Congo, along with \u201cregional actors,\u201d should immediately resume diplomatic talks. \u201cThese regional diplomatic efforts, not military conflict, are the only path toward a negotiated solution and sustainable peace,\u201d he stressed. The US warning follows the Rwandan Foreign Ministry\u2019s rejection on Monday of US calls for the withdrawal of its troops and surface-to-air missile systems from eastern Congo.<\/p>\n
The US State Department on Saturday also criticised the worsening violence caused by M23, a \u201cRwanda-backed\u201d armed group. The Rwanda ministry\u2019s statement said its troops are defending Rwandan territory as Congo carries out a \u201cdramatic military build-up\u201d near the border.<\/p>\n
The ministry spoke of threats to Rwandan national security stemming from the presence in Congo of an armed group whose members include alleged perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them were killed.<\/p>\n
The rebel group, known by its initials FDLR, \u201cis fully integrated into\u201d the Congolese army, the statement said. Although Rwanda has long cited a threat posed by FLDR, authorities there had never admitted to a military presence in eastern Congo. Congolese authorities accuse the central African country of actively supporting M23.<\/p>\n
Congo\u2019s UN Ambassador Zenon Ngay Mukongo urged the Security Council to demand that Rwanda withdraw its troops from the country without pre-conditions, and halt all support for M23. He accused Rwanda\u2019s army of illegally occupying part of the eastern province of North Kivu, and of providing support to M23 to destabilize Congo and \u201cto pillage our riches, our wealth in ore and minerals\u201d in the east.<\/p>\n
Mukongo told the council that no attack by the FDLR from Congolese territory has been recorded against Rwanda for more than two decades. As for Rwanda\u2019s fears of genocide, he said its minority Tutsis hold power over the majority Hutus, and that will never happen in Congo which he said has hundreds of tribes, \u201cand we live together.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed that Tutsis in Congo are Congolese, and \u201cthe problems of the Congolese Tutsis will be resolved in the Congo by Congolese.\u201d \u201cSo you stay home!,\u201d Mukongo said, as Rwanda\u2019s UN Ambassador Ernest Rwamucyo, sat across from him at the Security Council\u2019s horseshoe-shaped table.<\/p>\n
Rwamucyo said the integration of the \u201cgenocidal FDLR\u201d into the Congolese army is government policy and a great concern to his country. This alliance continues to target innocent Kinyarwanda speaking Tutsis with violence, hate speech and murders, he said. \u201cWe are at the brink of a very serious catastrophe in the region as a result of this,\u201d he said, warning of another possible genocide.<\/p>\n
The recent escalation of the conflict in eastern Congo is taking place in the context of calls by the presidents of Congo and Burundi for regime change in Rwanda, Rwamucyo said. To solve the complex security challenges in the region, he said, \u201ca non-negotiable requirement\u201d is ending Congo\u2019s support for the FDLR and ensuring the armed group\u2019s demobilization and repatriation to Rwanda.<\/p>\n
Fighting near Goma, the region\u2019s largest city, has intensified in recent days as M23 rebels threatened to take over the metropolis. Residents of the nearby town of Sake have been fleeing fierce fighting between Congolese government troops and the group.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s UN Ambassador Nicolas de Rivi\u00e8re condemned M23\u2019s recent offensive against Sake and Rwanda\u2019s support for M23 and its presence on Ciongolese territory. \u201cThis must end,\u201d he said, stressing that \u201ca threshold has been crossed\u201d by its deployment of anti-aircraft systems in Congo.<\/p>\n
Wood, the US deputy ambassador, urged the international community to take immediate steps to end the fighting and de-escalate tensions between Congo and Rwanda. Millions of people face a grave humanitarian crisis and the scale of displacement, human rights abuses and gender based violence is \u201cappalling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Eastern Congo already had one of the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crises, with nearly 6 million people previously displaced because of conflict, according to the UN Refugee Agency. There are concerns a new disaster could largely go unnoticed because of the attention on the war in Gaza and Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Wood echoed US calls for M23 to immediate halt attacks and withdraw from the area, and for Rwanda to end its support for the armed group and immediately withdraw its forces and missile systems from Congo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States told Rwanda and Congo that they \u201cmust walk back from the brink of war,\u201d the sharpest warning\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":31402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9815,10249,545,10190,10247,10246,9820,10248,775,95,492,4155],"class_list":["post-31401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-congo","tag-eastern-congo","tag-france","tag-instability","tag-natural-resources","tag-rebel-groups","tag-rwanda","tag-rwanda-genocide","tag-unsc","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war"],"reading_time":"4 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}