Why would Rwandan troops be in DRC?

In a recent interview with France 24, the French media outlet’s Mark Perelman asked Rwandan President Paul Kagame whether his army is operating on DRC territory as alleged.

“Why would Rwanda be in DRC, or [be] supporting M23? That question needs to be asked by anyone who wants to understand the problem, and even later on deal with it because you have to understand, what is M23? How did they come about?” responded President Kagame.

“Rwanda did not create M23." Kagame reiterated that all that is alleged by the DRC government and its allies is that Rwanda is supporting the the M23 rebels yet, for him, the question is: if this M23 rebel group exists, "why don’t we look at the root cause of this problem?”

Western countries have sided with Kinshasa’s narrative of blaming Kigali for all the recurrent insecurity in eastern DRC.

Rwanda has repeatedly denied the allegation, and accused Kinshasa of arming and supporting FDLR, a terrorist group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. 

Western countries and others, who talk about DRC’s security situation, continie to raise the issue out of context.

For Kagame, they want to turn a very complicated situation, and a big problem, into a narrow issue of just accusing Rwanda of having troops in eastern DRC.

“No! This is what I’m refusing. Let’s not just talk about presence or support of anybody. Let’s talk about the underlying causes that would even make anybody do what they have to do if that is the case,” the Rwandan President said.

Rwanda has for long declared that the existence of FDLR terrorist group in eastern DRC, and the fact that the militia is supported and armed by Kinshasa, poses a big security threat not only to Kigali but also to the entire region.

The FDLR, a negative militia group running on a genocidal ideology, has on many occasions plotted and executed deadly attacks on Rwanda’s territory, with support from Kinshasa. Worse still, the militia group has been documented killing thousands of Congolese people in several reports.

“[FDLR] is a threat and as far as DRC is running away from its problems of its citizens whom it deprives all their rights; and kills them, persecutes them… And, there is hate speech, there is actually genocidal ideology operating in eastern DRC,” Kagame said.

For almost three decades, Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese have been persecuted, especially the Congolese Tutsi who have been the target of FDLR.

The M23 rebel group is fighting for the rights of its persecuted and disowned community to be recognized as legitimate citizens with full rights as any other Congolese nationals.

The M23 rebels are fighting to protect the lives of Congolese Tutsi and Rwandophones who are targets of hate speech and violence orchestrated by their own government.

Hundreds have been murdered in various parts of eastern DRC. But when the international community talks about the situation in eastern DRC, they just jump up allegations that “Rwandan troops are in DRC, supporting M23 rebels.”