U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Rwanda to pull back its troops from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and encourage M23 rebels to do the same.
Blinken’s remarks underscored America’s acceptance of Congolese allegations that Rwanda backs the M23 rebellion, which the United Nations says has displaced almost 400,000 people since March. Rwanda denies the accusations.
“We are looking to Rwanda to use its influence with M23 to encourage” them to withdraw their troops, Blinken said at the end of the three-day US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C, on Dec. 15. “Rwandan forces need to pull back” as well, he added.
Eastern Congo has been wracked by conflict since the 1990s, when violence from the aftermath of Rwanda’s civil war and genocide spread across the border. More than 100 armed groups remain active in the region. Some, like the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, have links to the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, which left at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead.
The M23 is mainly made up of Congolese of Rwandan ethnicity who say they’re fighting against groups like the FDLR.
U.N. experts say Rwandan forces have also been in Congo fighting these groups, which Rwanda says are allied with Congo’s army. Blinken called on the FDLR and similar militias to “stand down.”
“When they say the FDLR are a problem, we have to recognize the FDLR are Rwandan and kill many more Congolese than they cause casualties in Rwanda,” Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya in an interview Thursday on the sidelines of the summit.
British High Commissioner to Rwanda Omar Daair earlier this week urged the Congolese government to take more action to tackle any collaboration between its armed forces and armed groups such us the FDLR.
Congo is participating in a number of ongoing peace talks with African leaders in part to find a way for the FDLR to go back to Rwanda, Muyaya said.
During the summit, the U.S. strengthened ties with Congo, Muyaya said. The two countries made progress on a working group on sustainable development and environmental issues and signed an agreement to support a plan to an electric-car-battery manufacturing initiative with Zambia, Muyaya said.
Congo produces about 70% of the world’s cobalt, a key battery element. It’s also home to the second-largest tropical forest and biggest tropical peatland. Both act as carbon sinks that serve as a bulwark against climate change.
(Saul Butera contributed to this report.)
