EU calls on Rwanda to pull troops out of DR Congo

KIGALI, Rwanda

The EU’s special representative for Africa’s Great Lakes region on Wednesday accused Rwanda of violating Congolese territory and urged a political solution to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Rwandan forces are on Congolese soil and must return home. Rwanda must also stop providing military and logistical assistance to the M23,” EU representative Johan Borgstram said at a news conference in Congo’s capital Kinshasa.

“The solution to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not military. A political solution is needed,” Borgstram said, adding that Rwanda and Congo have “no choice.”

“The two countries must work to establish a memorandum of understanding within the framework of regional processes,” he said, calling for regional organizations to supervise the negotiations.

Borgstram said that while he was in Rwanda, President Paul Kagame raised his country’s security concerns and pointed to what he described as a lack of political will by the Congolese government to justify the presence of Rwandan troops on Congolese soil.

However, the EU representative said the bloc’s position is that Rwanda's “interference in the Democratic Republic of Congo constitutes a violation of Congolese territory.”

The M23 group intensified its territorial control in eastern Congo in December, seizing the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.

Congo and others accuse neighboring Rwanda of backing the group, an allegation that Rwanda denies.

M23 says it is defending the interests of minority Congolese Tutsis, who claim they are discriminated against due to their ethnic links to Rwanda’s Tutsi community.

Germany on Tuesday joined the US and UK in imposing financial sanctions on Rwanda over the conflict.

Nearly 80,000 people have fled armed clashes in eastern Congo into neighboring countries, including around 61,000 who have arrived in Burundi since January, according to the UN refugee agency.