The Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has denied Rwanda’s account of an alleged incursion by a Congolese fighter plane into Rwandan airspace and stressed that Kigali’s firing of a missile at the aircraft «amounts to an act of war».
The Congolese Ministry of Communication said in a statement posted on its Twitter social network account that it «strongly condemns and denounces the attack against one of its Sukhoi-25 aircraft by the Rwandan Army.»
«This fighter was attacked when it was carrying out its landing on the runway of the international airport of Goma. The Rwandan gunfire was directed against a Congolese aircraft flying in Congolese territory. It did not fly over Rwandan airspace. The plane landed without major material damage,» he said.
Thus, he stressed that «the Government considers this umpteenth Rwandan attack as a deliberate act of aggression which amounts to an act of war that can have no other objective than to sabotage the efforts underway in the implementation of the actions agreed upon in the Luanda and Nairobi processes to restore peace in the eastern DRC and in the Great Lakes region».
«This attack is in addition to the offensive launched this morning (Tuesday morning) by the Rwandan Army towards Kitshanga, immediately repelled by the Armed Forces of the DRC,» he noted, referring to clashes in the area with the March 23 Movement (M23) group. Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the rebels.
«A few days before the start of voter registration operations in the center and east of the country – in view of the upcoming elections – the government draws the attention of the international community to the necessity and urgency of maintaining pressure on Rwanda and the M23 terrorist movement to stop the violence, which risks jeopardizing these operations in an election year,» he warned.
Finally, the Congolese Ministry of Communication stressed that it remains «committed to the various peace processes» and emphasized that it «reserves the legitimate right to defend its national territory, which it will not cease to do».
The statement has been issued hours after Kigali denounced that a DRC Air Force Sukhoi-25 had violated its airspace, the third such incident reported by Rwanda since November 2022. «Defensive measures have been taken. Rwanda calls on DRC to stop this aggression,» reads a brief statement by the Rwandan government.
CLASHES IN KITSHANGA The incident took place on a day in which new fighting between the Army and the M23 was recorded in the surroundings of Kitshanga, with no casualties reported for the moment. The clashes also provoked a new displacement of the population seeking to flee the violence.
Previously, the M23 had denounced that the Congolese Army and several allied militias had launched several attacks against its positions and said that Kinshasa «is making it difficult for the M23 to implement the resolutions of the Luanda mini-summit and the peace process in Nairobi».
In a second statement issued after the clashes, the rebel group denounced «provocative and endless attacks» by the government and its allied militias. «The said coalition and its mercenaries attacked our positions and IDPs who had taken refuge in our areas. We continue to defend ourselves and protect our civilian population,» he said.
«These attacks do not come as a surprise, considering the communiqué of January 17, signed by the foreign minister, Christophe Lutundula, which is a declaration of war,» he has maintained, after Kinshasa accused the group of not completing its withdrawal on the scheduled dates.
«It is necessary to remember that the coalition attacking us includes Mai-Mai groups that have signed a commitment to surrender their weapons under the auspices of the peace process in Nairobi. Unfortunately, instead of disarming them, the DRC government has given them more weapons and deployed them on all front lines to fight the M23,» he stressed.
As such, the M23 said it «does not understand how the DRC Government has chosen the warmongering option instead of resolving the conflict, as the said option continues to cause unnecessary loss of lives. «One wonders if the DRC government will have the courage to seek help and support from the region and the international community after skipping its endless efforts to achieve peace,» he questioned.
The rebel group further showed «gratitude» to «compatriots who reject the hate speech of the DRC government» and called on the population in the areas it controls to «remain calm and continue with their daily lives as normal.» «The M23 will continue to defend itself and protect the civilian population and their property,» he concluded.
THE CONFLICT WITH THE M23 The M23 is a rebel group made up mainly of Congolese Tutsis and operating mainly in North Kivu province. After a conflict between 2012 and 2013, DRC and the group signed a peace agreement in December. In the fighting, the DRC Army was supported by UN troops.
The M23 launched a new offensive in October 2022, intensified from November, which has provoked a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and Rwanda over its role in the conflict. UN experts pointed in December to the existence of «substantial evidence» of a «direct intervention» of the Rwandan army in the conflict.
The experts also pointed to Uganda’s responsibility for the upsurge in fighting and claim that Kampala has allowed rebels to cross its border with the DRC. Thus, members of the armed group are said to have passed «unhindered» across the border to seize the town of Bunagana in June.
They also highlighted a collusion between the Congolese Army and several armed groups, including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the Mai-Mai, to combat the M23, including the proposal by armed groups to «mobilize 600 fighters» to reinforce the ranks of the Armed Forces.
Rwanda has repeatedly accused the DRC of supporting the FDLR — an armed rebel group founded and composed mainly of Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda — and of using the Mai-Mai militias — Congolese nationalist militias formed to defend their tribal territory against the numerous rebel groups active since the 1990s — in the context of the conflict. He has also denounced discrimination and acts of hatred against the Tutsi minority in the neighboring country.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
