The Congolese PM is criticized by Nduhungirehe over the Bukavu incident

Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has reacted to Congolese Prime Minister Judith Suminwa’s accusation that Rwanda was involved in the attack that occurred Thursday in Bukavu, the seat of South Kivu Province.

Explosions took lives. At a protest organized by the AFC/M23 rebels, who have ruled Bukavu for more than two weeks after pursuing government forces, 13 people were murdered and 75 injured. Speaking to tens of thousands of people at the gathering, Corneille Nangaa, the leader of the AFC/M23 movement, said that Kinshasa was responsible for the attack.

The Congolese prime minister claimed that the Rwandan army was responsible for the attack in a post on X.

On Wednesday, February 28, Nduhungirehe responded to the charge by questioning the Congolese government’s “sudden” interest in the latest incident and its lack of knowledge about terrorist militia activity in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“How can a Prime Minister—who never condemns the egregious crimes committed by CODECO and ADF in Ituri, who never denounces the FDLR and Wazalendo for their daily persecution of Congolese Tutsi in North Kivu, and who condones the current ethnic cleansing of Banyamulenge in South Kivu—suddenly wake up to shed crocodile tears over a terrorist attack committed at a rally organized by the AFC/M23 in Bukavu?” said the prime minister.

The Burundian army, which has over 10,000 soldiers fighting alongside the forces of the Congolese government, is the owner of the explosives used, according to the AFC.

Along with European mercenaries, South Africa-led SADC forces, and local armed organizations known as Wazalendo, the Congolese army alliance also includes the FDLR, a militia established by the surviving members of the masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.