A day after receiving a 48-hour notice to leave the country due to rebel advances in the east, Rwanda accused its neighbouring Congo of heightening tensions between the two nations on Sunday.
Congo thinks that Rwanda is aiding the M23 rebels, whose power has grown over the previous year. Residents said that on Saturday, the rebels took over two more towns, including Kiwanja.
The Rwandan government announced in a statement that its bordering forces “remain on alert” after giving Rwandan Ambassador Vincent Karega the order to leave the Congo.
“It is regrettable the government of the DRC continues to scapegoat Rwanda to cover up and distract from their own governance and security failures,” said the statement attributed to the Office of the Government Spokesperson.
About 100 protesters in Congo marched through the streets of Goma from the city centre to the Rwandan border, protesting “Rwandan aggression,” as a sign of escalating tensions. Some brandished ripped Rwandan flags and shouted unfriendly phrases. A Rwandan flag was burned at the border.
The M23 gained notoriety more than ten years ago when its militants took control of Goma, the biggest city in the east of the Congo, which is located along the Rwandan border. Many of M23’s fighters were incorporated into the national military following a peace agreement.
The organization later reappeared in November of last year, claiming that the government had fallen short of its ten-year commitments. By June, they had taken control of the vital town of Bunagana, which is close to the Ugandan border.
Because many of the M23 rebels are members of the Tutsi ethnic group from the Congo and because Rwanda’s president is Tutsi from that country, M23 has become a source of friction between the two countries.
In a study released in August, U.N. experts claimed to have “strong evidence” that soldiers from Rwanda were undertaking operations in eastern Congo to aid the M23 rebel organisation.
However, Rwanda has always refuted the claims and has asserted that some civilians were hurt during cross-border firing by Congolese forces.
