Rwanda slams U.S. for ‘exacerbating’ the crisis in eastern in DRC

Rwanda Tuesday laid into the U.S. and the international community for exacerbating the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), plagued by armed groups after US top diplomat Anthony Blinken urged Kigali to stop any supposed support for the rebels.

The Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Biruta, affirmed in a press release that Paul Kagame and Anthony Blinken “had had good exchanges (…) but that differences remain on the understanding of the problem,” Africa News reports.

“The erroneous approach of the international community continues to exacerbate the problem,” added the head of Rwandan diplomacy.

The reaction came following a statement by the US State Department that Blinken held a telephone conversation with President Paul Kagame and urged that support to non-state armed groups in the DRC must end, including Rwanda’s support for M23.

DRC has repeatedly blamed Kigali for backing M23, a rebel group controlling small swathes of the Congolese eastern territories.

Rwandan authorities on the other hand have repeatedly blamed the crisis in eastern DRC on authorities in Kinshasa and accused the international community of turning a blind eye to its supposed support for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a movement of Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom were involved in the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.

Biruta also stressed that “Rwanda’s security problems must be taken into account”, and that the “M23 should not be equated with Rwanda.”