Kagame: Everyone is allowed to deal with rebels in Congo, except Rwanda

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has criticised the international community for looking away from the real problem causing the war in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the first press conference for 2025, the Rwandan leader said the escalating violence in neighbouring DRC is mostly a result of both Congolese leaders and the international community refusing to acknowledge the problem. Instead, he argued, they have found Rwanda to be an easier scapegoat, while covering up what he described as historical causes.

“This eastern Congo problem, which I have in the past indicated is Congo’s problem as a whole and for our region, for the continent and for the rest of the world.

“The cause of it and many factors that perpetuate that problem are from different parts of the world, including from the big countries as we know them,” he told a media conference at the Kigali Convention Centre on Thursday.

The Rwandan leader spoke as Kinshasa tightened local controls, including a threat of death sentence for the media reporting on versions of the war that praise Rwanda or the M23, which Kinshasa says is backed by Kigali. Rwanda has denied the claims.

The trouble in eastern DRC has been the M23’s continual war against the Congolese army, Fardc, and allied forces, including some militia.

In the past, the M23 and the Congolese government appeared to be moving closer to a long-term peace deal before it broke down two years ago. Since then, sporadic fighting has often been punctuated by peace talks that have often pushed for a ceasefire that is hardly obeyed.

Mr Kagame says the international community should be ready to point fingers at DRC.

“M23, as you talk about, these are Congolese. Even to the admission of Congo’s leaders, in the past and present. Why are they fighting? Why do we have over 100,000 refugees here in Rwanda originating from that region? Is it because Rwanda wants refugees and attracted them from Congo to come?” he posed, responding to a question on how to deal with the eastern Congo war.

The M23 are mostly composed of Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese people. However, Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing the rebel group, claims that a UN panel of experts has corroborated in the past.

Kagame rejects the allegation and says the actual problem is the international community’s failure to address their grievances, including constant persecution from authorities in the DRC, as well as covering up the culprits, including the FDLR rebels, accused of committing genocide in Rwanda in 1994 before fleeing into the Congo.

 “The international community have entertained (them). I think they have deliberately preserved them (FDLR); I don’t know for what. Whether it is a gift of thanks to them for having committed genocide, or preserved them because they are anti-Rwanda…

“Part of the reason Monusco is in DRC was to address this problem. But after 30 years, if you ask the UN what they have been doing there, what is there to show? Only to end up blaming Rwanda for everything that has happened there. Problems of Congo are blamed on Rwanda by this so-called international community,” President Kagame said, referring to the French acronym for the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC.

Deployed 30 years ago, the name of the mission and mandate have morphed over the years.

“If DRC is not prepared to take responsibility for its people and country…how can we solve this problem in our region?”

While the press conference was meant to discuss various issues, including Rwanda’s position on continental quests such as the push for UN reforms, the conflict in eastern DRC was always going to be a hot issue.

Just last week, more than 100,000 civilians were displaced from eastern DRC’s Kivu provinces in renewed fighting between M23 and Congolese forces. Medical charity group MSF also reported an increased number of civilians checking into hospitals with wounds, a signal of rising violence.

President Kagame said the conflict in DRC wouldn’t be solved even if Rwanda were to be “relocated” to a region of the world, because no one was focusing on the cause.

“People get lost in the blame game and forget to really address the root causes of the problems we have and find a solution.”

“This problem is not unsurmountable, it can be addressed, it can end. It should have ended in actual fact, long ago. But you can’t end it by manipulation, by playing games.

Rwanda has argued the solution lies in direct dialogue between the DRC and M23, something Kinshasa has rebuffed. It labelled M23 as terrorist group. Last year, some of the leaders of the group were sentenced to death, although some were in exile.

“Wherever there were meetings to discuss how to end this problem, Rwanda was present. But I have discovered that being there and not being there amounts to the same thing - it doesn’t address the problem. The leaders of those processes holding people’s hands is not an end in itself. We have to have results built on addressing the root causes.”