Kagame informs regional leaders that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an ethnic war

President Paul Kagame has called the current conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo an ethnic war and called on regional authorities to take immediate action to solve the situation that has been spreading into Rwanda.

At the EAC-SADC Joint Summit in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, February 8, Kagame stated, “What is happening there is an ethnic war that has been brewing for a long time, denying people’s rights and then attacking Rwanda.”

The president urged regional leaders to act decisively to end the crisis and emphasized that the issue could no longer be ignored.

Rwanda has long sought to confront the involvement of DR Congo in the situation, but Congolese officials have always resisted, Kagame noted. When they are posing a security threat to our nation, the Democratic Republic of the Congo cannot simply order us to remain silent. We can’t be told to stop talking,” he stated.

He also criticized the never-ending loop of meetings that provide no real outcomes and expressed concerns about the persistent inability to make significant progress.

We have raised our concerns and begged DRC and its authorities to address them for a long time, but they have refused. Kagame stated, “Let’s not just have another meeting like the many we’ve had.”

He adamantly denied claims that Rwanda was to blame for the war, stressing that DR Congo was the one who started it.

“The Democratic Republic of the Congo initiated this conflict, not Rwanda. We were instructed to own it after it was just brought and placed on our shoulders. We are unable to possess it. There’s no doubt about that,” he declared.

Kagame called on regional leaders to take prompt, decisive action. He went on, “Let’s use this meeting in a way that will take all of these issues seriously and find a lasting solution.”

One of the main issues emphasized at the summit was the peaceful settlement of the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo through the Luanda and Nairobi peace processes. 

The demand for the adoption of a coordinated strategy to destroy the FDLR, a terrorist organization located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and established by the surviving leaders of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi, was another top priority.

The genocidal militia is still a serious threat to Rwanda, the area as a whole, and especially the Congolese Tutsi populations, who have been persecuted in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and are fueling regional instability.