Rwanda under pressure over escalating DRC conflict
Publish date: 03 February 2025
Issue Number: 1111
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: General
As tension mounts in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the takeover of a key city by Rwandan-backed rebels, leading to fears of a regional war with international impact, African leaders are putting up a strong, united front against further incursions, and the west is being called on to take decisive action. At stake are the lives of thousands of innocent people caught up in the long-running conflict, and highly-lucrative mineral deposits which are widely believed to be the real motive for Rwanda's backing of rebels, notes Legalbrief.
Southern African leaders have pledged to stand firm against the attack on the DRC, committing to collective action in the event of an armed attack on any SADC member. After crisis talks in Harare on Friday following advances by the Rwanda-backed M23 group, which captured the DRC's biggest city in its mineral-rich east, SADC heads of government and their representatives also backed calls for a joint summit of the SADC and the eight-country East African Community ‘to deliberate on the way forward regarding the security situation in the DRC’, the Sunday Tribune reports. An armed attack on any SADC member, they said, would be considered a threat to regional peace and security and ‘shall be met with immediate collective action’. The talks were attended by President Cyril Ramaphosa, SADC chairperson President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (Zimbabwe), President Duma Gideon Boko (Botswana), President Félix Tshisekedi of the DRC (who attended virtually), President Andry Rajoelina (Madagascar), President Daniel Francisco Chapo (Mozambique), President Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), President Hakainde Hichilema (Zambia), Prime Minister Samuel Ntsokoane Matekane (Lesotho), Deputy Prime Minister Thulisile Dladla (eSwatini), Ambassador Téte António (Angola), Minister of External Relations Nancy Gladys Tembo (Malawi) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Kapofi (Namibia). The leaders noted with concern the recent attacks by the M23 group and Rwanda Defence Force on the government forces of DRC, the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC) and the civilian population in North Kivu. The SADC summit ‘reaffirmed its solidarity and unwavering commitment to continue supporting the DRC in its pursuit of safeguarding its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,’ according to the final statement after the talks.
The talks were convened after 14 soldiers from SA and three from Malawi were killed in recent fighting around Goma, where they were deployed as part of regional peacekeeping efforts. The Sunday Tribune report says the SADC condemned in strongest terms the attacks on the SAMIDRC troops by the M23 armed group and the RDF, saying such actions violated the ceasefire that was brokered through the Luanda Process on 30 July last year and undermined the peace and security of the DRC and the SADC region. The SADC leaders mandated its defence grouping to engage all parties in a ceasefire process and reiterated support for mediation efforts led by Angola and Kenya, and urged Rwanda and the DRC to return to negotiations. Rwanda has never admitted to military involvement in support of the M23 group but alleges that the DRC supports and shelters the FDLR, an armed group created by former Hutu leaders who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame charged this week that the SADC deployment in the DRC was ‘not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation’. The SADC deployed the peacekeeping mission to the eastern DRC in December 2023. SA dominates the force, which is estimated to number around 1 300 troops, but Malawi and Tanzania also contribute troops. The summit statement called for the immediate dispatch of defence officials from the three countries with peacekeeping troops in the country to ensure they were safe and to facilitate the repatriation of the dead and wounded.
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The EU is under mounting pressure to suspend a controversial minerals deal with Rwanda that has been blamed for fuelling the conflict. Calls to freeze the agreement have grown after the M23 rebel group captured Goma, escalating a decades-old conflict and raising fears of a regional war. With the people of Goma, in North Kivu province, going hungry and relief efforts paralysed, Belgium, the former colonial power in DRC and Rwanda, is leading calls for the EU to suspend the 2024 agreement intended to boost the flow of critical raw materials for Europe’s microchips and electric car batteries. ‘The international community must consider how to respond, because declarations have not been enough,’ said Belgium’s Foreign Minister, Bernard Quintin, last week during a visit to Morocco. ‘We have the levers and we have to decide how to use them.’ Diplomatic sources said Belgium had pressed for a suspension of the EU-Rwanda minerals agreement at several levels, including at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers last Monday. Brussels and Kigali signed a memorandum of understanding on sustainable raw materials value chains in February 2024. The EU gets access to raw material sources that include tin, tungsten, gold, niobium and potential lithium and rare earth elements. Rwanda is the world’s largest extractor of the rare earth metal tantalum, which is used in chemical equipment. The EU is giving Kigali €900m to develop its infrastructure in raw materials extraction, health and climate resilience. Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi accuses Rwanda of plundering the DRC’s resources, and several UN reports say Rwanda uses the M23 group as a means to extract and then export minerals. Rwanda denies this and says its primary interest in eastern DRC is to eradicate fighters linked to the 1994 genocide. The US Government has also raised concerns that armed groups are benefiting from illegal trade in Congolese minerals, including gold and tantalum. ‘Significant quantities’ of Congolese minerals are being moved by traders, supported by armed groups and security services, to Rwanda and Uganda, where they are sold on to international buyers, the US embassy in DRC has said. ‘In many cases, these minerals directly or indirectly benefit armed groups,’ it said.
The UN has said Rwanda has ‘de facto control’ over the M23 rebels, who are well-equipped and well-trained. Emily Stewart, who works on transition minerals at the NGO Global Witness, said there was a ‘clear moral imperative’ to suspend the agreement. ‘The situation in Goma highlights the importance of ensuring that the energy transition does not further embed inequalities and conflict already experienced in mineral-rich regions. The current rush for minerals has the potential to embolden violent and bad-faith actors. To counter this, agreements and plans going forward for mining for transition minerals should be made in tandem with communities.’ The UK has suggested suspending aid to Rwanda, while Germany has cancelled meetings and said it was in talks with other donors about ‘further measures’. The European Commission has so far brushed aside criticism of the 2024 deal with Rwanda: a spokesperson last Tuesday said critical materials were ‘essential to achieve the green and digital transition both within the EU and across the world’. They said: ‘One of the main objectives of the partnership MoU with Rwanda is precisely to support the sustainable and responsible sourcing, production and processing of raw materials, and we will increase now in our work this traceability and transparency.’
Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye has called on the international community to rein in Rwanda, which he accuses of ‘annexing parts of its neighbouring countries’, according to The Monitor. Addressing the diplomatic corps in Bujumbura on Saturday, Ndayishimiye said: ‘If Rwanda has decided to start annexing some parts of its neighbours, a time will come and they also attack Burundi. They are training and arming young Burundian refugees and sending them to fight in DRC, they will also send them to Burundi, but we shall not allow that. I've told Burundians if the international community keeps looking on, we shall not do the same here in Burundi.’ ‘You see what is happening around us, why is everyone quiet? It’s like the international community is not seeing the consequences of this instability. I am telling you if it goes on like this, the war will spread into the entire region, because our populations will not stomach it. If Rwanda says its only problem is FDLR, isn't that a problem that can be solved through peaceful methods? Why sacrifice millions of innocent Congolese under the pretext of fighting FDLR?’ Ndayishimiye sent Burundian troops to fight alongside the Congolese army and affiliated militias and the SADC troops and mercenaries. Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Olivier Nduhungirehe refuted President Ndayishimiye’s claims. ‘If the Burundi National Defence Forces had been deployed in the DRC to fight foreign armed groups, why did they never attack FDLR, which is foreign genocidal group? Why do the Burundian forces instead collaborate with the same FDLR?’ the Minister said.
At least 773 people have been killed in Goma and its vicinity in a week, amid fighting with M23 rebels who captured the city in a serious escalation of a decade-long conflict, authorities said, reports Al Jazeera. ‘These figures remain provisional because the rebels asked the population to clean the streets of Goma. There should be mass graves and the Rwandans took care to evacuate theirs,’ Congolese Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said, adding that the death toll could be higher. M23 is the most potent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in DRC’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world’s technology. They are backed by about 4 000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to UN experts. The rebels’ advance into other areas was slowed by the central African nation’s military, which recovered some villages from them. The military was weakened after it lost hundreds of troops, however, and foreign mercenaries surrendered (see story below) to the rebels after the fall of Goma. Meanwhile, hundreds of Goma residents began returning to the city on Saturday after the rebels promised to restore basic services, including water and power supply. Goma’s capture has brought humanitarian operations to ‘a standstill, cutting off a vital lifeline for aid delivery’ across eastern DRC, said Rose Tchwenko, country director for the Mercy Corps aid group.
The deaths of South African soldiers in the DRC led to a near diplomatic fallout between SA and Rwanda, but Ministers of Foreign Affairs from Rwanda and SA appear to have smoothed tensions between the two countries, reports News24. Rwanda's Minister, Olivier Nduhungirehe, said on social media, ‘Thank you, my brother, @RonaldLamola, for the good and constructive conversation we had yesterday evening. Rwanda remains committed to peace and stability in Eastern DRC. Looking forward to working with SA towards common aspirations in our region and in the whole continent.’ It followed Department of International Relations & Co-operation Minister Ronald Lamola’s post, which said: ‘Had a call with Minister @ONduhungirehe. We committed to advancing dialogue on eastern #DRC and agreed to pursue the spirit of the ceasefire agreement as per our Heads of State and regional processes of SADC and the East African community.’ Lamola told the SABC President Cyril Ramaphosa had yet to respond to Rwanda’s head of state, despite thinly veiled threats having been made. Lamola could not confirm whether Ramaphosa had warned Kagame that if the Rwanda Defence Force failed to halt the assault on SANDF troops, that would be considered a declaration of war.
The DRC’s Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, meanwhile, has urged football clubs Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain to end their ‘blood-stained’ sponsorship agreements with ‘Visit Rwanda’ following the worsening humanitarian crisis in the country. The East African reports that the DR Congo Health ministry said on Saturday there were almost 800 bodies in hospital morgues around Goma. Wagner wrote to the three clubs this week and questioned the morality of their sponsorship deals, citing a UN report that suggested there were 4 000 Rwandan troops active in DR Congo. ‘Countless lives have been lost; rape, murder and theft prevail. Your sponsor is directly responsible for this misery. If not for your own consciences, then the clubs should do it (end their sponsorship agreement) for the victims of Rwandan aggression.’ ‘Visit Rwanda’ began their sponsorship of Arsenal in 2018, with the latest deal reported to be worth more than $12.39m per year. Bayern Munich signed a five-year football development and tourism promotion partnership with Rwanda in 2023, while ‘Visit Rwanda’ has been a sponsor of PSG since 2019. British Foreign Minister David Lammy told Parliament on Tuesday Rwanda received over $1bn in global aid every year, including around 32m pounds of bilateral UK assistance, but ‘all of that is under threat when you attack your neighbours.’
It has been a humiliating week for nearly 300 Romanian mercenaries recruited to fight on the side of the army in the DRC. Their surrender following the rebel assault on Goma has also shattered the dreams of those who signed up for the job to earn big money. The BBC has seen contracts that show that these hired soldiers were being paid around $5 000 a month, while regular military recruits get around $100, or sometimes go unpaid. The Romanians were contracted to help the army fight the M23 rebels. When the offensive on Goma started on Sunday night, the Romanians were forced to take refuge at a UN peacekeeping base. ‘The M23 rebels were supported by troops and state-of-the-art military equipment from Rwanda and managed to reach our positions around the city of Goma,’ Constantin Timofti, described as a co-ordinator for the group, told Romanian TVR channel on Monday. ‘The national army gave up fighting and we were forced to withdraw.’ Romania's Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Țărnea told the BBC that ‘complex’ negotiations followed, which saw the M23 hand over the Romanian fighters - whom he described as private employees of the DR Congo Government on an army training mission - to Rwanda. Richard Moncrief, International Crisis Group's project director for the Great Lakes, points out that as well as mercenaries, the Congolese army works with troops from SADC, a local militia known as Wazalendo, as well as soldiers from Burundi. ‘It creates a situation where it's impossible to plan military offences where chain of command and responsibility is muddied,’ he told the BBC.