Rwanda is illegally occupying the Democratic Republic of Congo and making an attempt to orchestrate regime exchange, the rustic’s international minister has instructed the BBC.
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner mentioned the sector had allowed Rwandan President Paul Kagame a long time of impunity and failure to carry him in charge of violating world regulation.
Her feedback come after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels captured the jap Congolese town of Goma and threatened to proceed their offensive to the capital, Kinshasa, which is two,600km (1,600 miles) away.
Rwanda’s executive spokeswoman Yolande Makolo denied the accusation and mentioned its troops had been best deployed to stop the struggle spilling over to its territory.
“We aren’t taken with struggle, we aren’t taken with annexation, we aren’t taken with regime exchange,” Ms Makolo instructed the BBC’s Newsday programme.
The Southern African Building Group (Sadc), a regional bloc made up of 16 contributors, is conserving a different assembly on Friday in Zimbabwe to talk about the placement in DR Congo.
Sadc has despatched peacekeeping troops, basically from South Africa, to DR Congo to fight armed teams just like the M23 and repair peace within the mineral-rich area after a long time of unrest.
16 infantrymen from southern African nations were killed in clashes with the M23 round Goma previously week.
In a public spat on X along with his South African counterpart, Rwanda’s President Kagame mentioned the Sadc troops had been “now not a peacekeeping power, and it has no position on this scenario”.
The combating has worsened the humanitarian disaster in jap DR Congo because the M23 has captured massive spaces of North Kivu province, round Goma.
Shelley Thakral, from the UN’s Global Meals Programme (WFP) mentioned the town’s citizens had been operating out of meals, blank water and scientific provides.
“The provision chain has in reality been strangled at the present time should you consider land get right of entry to, air get right of entry to, when the whole thing is closed down,” she instructed the AFP information company.
For the reason that get started of 2025, greater than 400,000 other people were compelled from their houses, in line with the UN’s refugee company.
Spokesperson for the UN Prime Commissioner for Human Rights Jeremy Laurence mentioned there were experiences of sexual violence by way of Congolese troops.
There are experiences that no less than 50 ladies were raped, some by way of a number of males, in South Kivu, he mentioned.
The M23 has additionally killed no less than 12 other people in abstract executions for the reason that disaster began, in line with the UN.
The Rwandan spokesperson asserted that the rustic’s troops had been securing their borders in line with “repeated violations”, together with 15 deaths, from cross-border shelling.
“The DRC must do a greater process of having their territory so as. This is their duty,” she mentioned.
Ms Makolo added that Rwanda used to be striking “closely defensive mechanisms, and offensive mechanisms” alongside the border to safeguard its funding.
She additionally mentioned that Rwanda used to be involved in regards to the presence in DR Congo of militias chargeable for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and which sought after to go back to Rwanda to “end the process”. She accused the Congolese government of operating with those teams.
The Congolese international minister additionally accused Rwanda of occupying DR Congo with a view to exploit its huge mineral assets, corresponding to gold and coltan, which is used to make batteries for cell phones and electrical automobiles.
“I feel that Rwanda needs to be below an embargo for all of its mineral exportations, they must now not be making the most of what has been mined illegally and below compelled labour within the jap DRC,” she mentioned.
This used to be denied by way of Ms Makolo.
Ms Wagner known as for a halt to international assist being despatched to Rwanda and sanctions to be positioned at the leaders “enabling this conflict”.
Overseas donors, like the United Kingdom and Germany, have already threatened to droop assist.
She also referred to as for Rwanda’s troops to be suspended from UN peacekeeping missions world wide.
“We need to witness a rustic that gifts itself as a peace-bringer in different nations, be(ing) a warmonger within the Nice Lakes area,” she mentioned.
UN professionals mentioned ultimate yr that Rwanda had between 3,000 and four,000 troops working along the M23 in jap DR Congo.
Human Rights Watch has warned of escalating dangers to civilians as DR Congo’s military fight the M23 rebels. The humanitarian workforce has accused each side of committing grave abuses in opposition to civilians.
UN Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres has warned that the present struggle dangers escalating right into a broader regional struggle.
Uganda’s military has mentioned it’ll give a boost to its defences alongside the border with DR Congo in line with the higher combating.
DR Congo is an unlimited nation, about two-thirds the dimensions of Western Europe, which borders 9 other nations.
Earlier conflicts within the nation, within the Nineteen Nineties, have drawn in numerous neighbours and had been dubbed “Africa’s Global Wars”.
