Kagame warns against 'tricks' after DRC peace deal

Rwandan President Paul Kagame is unsure whether a US-brokered peace deal would hold with the DRC and warned he would respond to any ‘tricks’ from his neighbour, reports TimesLIVE. The agreement signed last week calls for Rwandan troops to withdraw within 90 days from eastern DRC, where the UN says they are supporting M23 rebels who seized the region's two largest cities this year. Rwanda denies helping M23 and says its forces are acting in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). Kagame told reporters in Kigali that Rwanda was committed to implementing the deal, but that it could fail if DRC did not live up to its promises to neutralise the FDLR. ‘If the side that we are working with plays tricks and takes us back to the problem, then we deal with the problem like we have been dealing with it,’ Kagame said. He said he was grateful for the involvement of US President Donald Trump's administration in mediation efforts. ‘If it doesn't work, they aren't the ones to blame,’ Kagame said. There was no immediate response from DRC which has regularly accused Rwanda of being the aggressor.

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