US turns on Rwanda over alleged peace deal violations

The US ambassador to the UN has accused Rwanda, which reportedly backs the M23 armed group in the conflict in eastern DRC, of leading the region toward war, according to The Africa Report. ‘Instead of progress toward peace, as we have seen under President (Donald) Trump's leadership in recent weeks, Rwanda is leading the region toward more instability and toward war,’ Mike Waltz told a Security Council meeting. He denounced ‘the scope and the sophistication of Rwanda’s involvement’ in neighbouring DRC, where the M23 has launched a new offensive. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is demanding sanctions against Rwanda after the M23 seized the strategic eastern town of Uvira, while Rwanda rejects responsibility for the escalation, blaming its Congolese and Burundian neighbours. After the signing of the Washington agreement on 4 December, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said he expected difficulties. ‘Like any war, like any conflict, there’s going to be ups and downs, stops and starts,’ he declared at the time.’You can sign papers, you can sign documents, but you have to comply.’ Did he expect, however, that the situation on the ground would degenerate so quickly?

On 10 December, less than a week after the meeting between Trump, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and the DRC's Félix Tshisekedi, Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC)/M23 rebels and their Rwandan backers took control of Uvira. A strategic hub located on the border with Burundi's economic capital, the second-largest city in South Kivu represents the rebellion’s main conquest since the capture of Bukavu last February. M23’s brutal attack on the local population in Uvira included mass rapes, including rape of children as young as 10, according to an in-depth report by Reuters, states The Africa Report. The AFC/M23 is positioning itself on the shores of Lake Tanganyika for the first time, getting a little closer to the Katanga region, and considerably increasing pressure on Burundi, a key partner of the Congolese army. Uvira had been a declared objective for the rebels for several months, but the fact that it occurred less than a week after the signing of the peace agreement constitutes a setback for the US-led process, even though the AFC/M23, which was not involved in the discussions, insists it is not concerned by the American mediation. In a statement published on 10 December, the Congolese Government denounced ‘President Kagame's deliberate choice to turn his back on the Washington agreements’. Burundi Foreign Minister Édouard Bizimana compared the capture of Uvira to Rwanda giving a ‘middle finger’ to the US. ‘Signing an agreement and not implementing it is a humiliation for everyone, and primarily for President Trump,’ he told AFP.

Kagame shifted the blame for the escalation to the DRC and Burundi and rejected accusations of violating the Washington agreement. ‘This problem facing our country comes from our neighbours.’ He gave assurances that Rwanda remained fully committed to the peace process. The sudden deterioration of the security situation exposes the limits of US mediation, which seems disconnected from the reality on the ground. Since the beginning, the US has exerted constant pressure on the various parties to sign the agreement, even though they have no trust in each other. ‘We have always been clear that the signing does not mark the end of the work but rather the beginning,’ US Ambassador to the DRC Lucy Tamlyn tells The Africa Report. ‘We are not discouraged (by recent developments), and I don't think Washington is either. We know there are efforts to be made to restore the necessary trust between the DRC and Rwanda.’ Tamlyn says Washington ‘remains engaged at all levels to hold each party accountable for its commitments,’ in response to Kinshasa’s demand. The future of the Washington agreement remains to be seen, as each party seems to want to proceed according to their own priorities. The Congolese government engaged in these discussions with the US because it hopes to derive security benefits from them. The idea, accepted in Kinshasa for months, is that if the Americans want to reorganise their supply chain with strategic minerals coming from the DRC, they have an obligation to contribute to securing it.

Full article in The Africa Report