DR Congo crisis: Kagame claims that Rwanda is solely worried about the FDLR security danger and not minerals

President Paul Kagame has reaffirmed that security threats from neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, not resources, have always been Rwanda’s issue.

Due to the security threat posed by the Congolese army (FARDC) and its allies, particularly the FDLR, a terrorist outfit located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and created by the surviving masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Kigali has maintained defensive measures along its border with the country.

Kagame emphasized that the problem has never been DR Congo’s minerals but rather the security threats, primarily posed by the genocidal militia supported by the Congolese government, in an interview with Mario Nawfal, an American blogger and host of one of the biggest social media shows who was in Rwanda last week.

Kinshasa has blamed Rwanda for the crisis in eastern DR Congo by claiming on multiple times that Rwanda’s mineral imports are “stolen” from DR Congo. This is a dangerous and untrue narrative that has been adopted and disseminated by Western nations.

Since they control the media and continue to profit from poor politics in the neighboring country, Kagame claimed that Rwanda was forced to bear the full burden of the issues created by nations that receive billions of dollars (from Congolese mines) and leave nothing behind.

Minerals are not our issue. Minerals are unrelated to it. Ours is about safety. Furthermore, we cannot consider minerals in that scenario once our security is uncertain. “No,” he responded, “that would be the last thing on our minds.”

He noted that Rwanda would rank last out of 100 organizations interested in the resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including China, Europe, the United States, Canada, and other African nations.

“The whole issue of these hundreds who receive billions and billions and leave nothing behind has been made to appear to be the fault of those who are least concerned with the minerals.”

According to Kagame, the struggle in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has always involved indigenous people who have lived there for years and who were forced to join the country after its territory was divided during the Berlin Conference in 1884–1885.

You can discuss other people who left Rwanda to migrate to Congo or anything else. However, some people are native to that area. He made reference to the AFC/M23 movement when he remarked, “These are the ones who are fighting, whom the government is uprooting and telling to go back to Rwanda.” For the past 23 years, Rwanda has been housing around 130,000 Congolese refugees, who have been denied admission into their homeland by Kinshasa, according to Kagame.

Since 2021, the Congolese government army coalition—which includes the FDLR, more than 10,000 Burundian soldiers, hundreds of European mercenaries, and South Africa-led SADC forces—has been engaged in a fight against the AFC/M23 insurgents.

The M23 is currently a member of the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), a broader rebel group that was established in December 2023.

The AFC is pushing for governance that protects all Congolese citizens, upholds fundamental human rights, and tackles the underlying causes of conflict. Among other evils that are pervasive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, its leaders have pledged to eradicate corruption, nepotism, tribalism, and the ideology of genocide.

The M23 rebellion’s origins can be traced back to previous resistance organizations established during the fall of the Mobutu Sese Seko government.

Following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi, Mobutu aided the genocidal troops that fled into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and established themselves close to Rwanda’s borders, starting attempts to destabilize the country and regain control.

Rwanda was forced to take unilateral action and join opposition troops in the First Congo War to overthrow Mobutu in spite of repeated requests for international assistance. Once an ally of Rwanda, Laurent-Désiré Kabila turned against his supporters after Mobutu was overthrown, reviving the murderous forces.

The Second Congo War, which lasted five years and involved numerous regional actors, was started by this betrayal.

The Sun City Agreement purportedly brought about peace, however it did not address the fundamental problems, most notably the existence of FDLR.

Kagame claims he spoke with all of the Congolese governments about the use of FDLR by various Congolese administrations to eradicate Congolese of Rwandan descent and ultimately destabilize Rwanda.

Kagame claimed that before to the most recent crisis, he had spoken with President Felix Tshisekedi on the matter on multiple occasions.

Kagame was asked about the purpose of the United Nations forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), who have been there for 24 years and have spent over $40 billion without bringing about peace, during the conversation.

In reality, what did they come to do? Which kind of peace have they brought about? to address the security issue in Rwanda posed by these FDLRs who have resided there for the past 30 years? Nothing. They only repatriated a few FDLRs and their families to Rwanda in connection with this.