Regional

If only Tshisekedi’s wall could keep genocidaires away from Rwanda

2023-11-05 05:30:00

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi is not interested in building bridges with neighboring Rwanda. He made this clear while speaking at the Three Basins Summit in Brazzaville, on October 26.

“As President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, faced with such situations (of insecurity), I am not tempted to build bridges (with Rwanda), but rather walls to ensure the security of my population," Tshisekedi said.

The mid 2022 resurgence of the 23 rebellion in DRC’s eastern areas sparked a quarrel between Kinshasa and Kigali. Kinshasa accused Kigali of supporting the M23 rebels. Rwanda denied DRC's claims and in turn accused DRC’s army of fighting alongside the FDLR.

In 2012, the M23 captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province in eastern DRC, before they were chased out by the combined forces of the Congolese army and the UN Force Intervention Brigade to Rwanda and Uganda the following year.

The Mouvement de 23 Mars (March 23 movement) or M23 rebels, is largely made up of members of the Congolese Tutsi ethnic group who fighting to protect their community from the FDLR, a militia founded by the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi who fled Rwanda after killing more than one million Tutsi countrymen. In eastern DRC where they have been based, they spread their genocide ideology and always target the Congolese Tutsi ethnic group, just like they did in Rwanda.

Successive governments in Kinshasa, including Tshisekedi’s, have accommodated and supported the militia group, despite its dangerous genocide ideology. Over the years, Kinshasa has sanitised the genocidal militia group to the extent that the FDLR are currently co-located, and fighting alongside the Armed Forces of the DRC, much to the annoyance of Kigali. The FDLR's sole mission is to return to Rwanda, by force of arms, to continue its genocidal mission.

Relations between DRC and Rwanda hit the lowest point of the Tshisekedi era as Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the resurgent M23 rebels who have been fighting for their community’s rights to citizenship and safety.

In a way, if Tshisekedi is really committed to building a wall separating DRC from Rwanda, it will be a very good project as it would keep the FDLR away from Rwanda.

The FDLR, supported by Kinshasa, has plotted and executed numerous deadly attacks on Rwanda’s territory.

The Congolese leader wants a wall, allegedly to preserve territorial integrity and ensure security.

Tshisekedi’s plot to separate two neighboring countries goes against the principle of good neighborliness.

Both countries are members of the East African Community, and his plot also goes against the bloc’s integration agenda since he will be isolating the Congolese population from the region.

The 2022 World Bank report noted that the DRC was a growing trade opportunity for Rwanda; with DRC being Rwanda’s biggest regional trading partner. Both countries have lots of common interests including trans-border trade and investment, among others.

By 2019, Rwanda exported more goods to DRC than to other East African Community countries. The main exports to DRC included livestock and food crops, but cross-border trade in services such as finance, transportation, and wholesale trading were also important, according to the report.

But now, trade between the two countries has suffered and diplomatic relations are at their lowest point. Worse still, Kinshasa has repeatedly rejected demand by M23 rebels for dialogue, effectively paralyzing a regional peace process which should have seen the rebels laying down their arms.

If Tshisekedi goes ahead with his plan to build a wall, what will be the fate of the more than 80,000 Congolese refugees on Rwandan soil?