Tension grows in the Democratic Republic of the Congo before the arrival of Macron

March 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Dozens of people have demonstrated in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasha, with Russian flags as tension grows in the country due to the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, who landed this Wednesday in Gabon as part of the first leg of his tour of Africa.

“We are here to say no to the arrival of Emmanuel Macron because France is complicit in our misfortune,” the leader of a citizen movement, Josue Bung, told the press, according to the news portal Actualité.

The protesters reproach Macron for not naming Rwanda during his speech on the French strategy for the coming months in Africa and for limiting himself to saying that the country’s “territorial and comprehensive sovereignty” “cannot be discussed”.

Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group, while Rwanda, for its part, denounces the Congolese authorities for their support for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), founded and composed mainly of by Hutus responsible for the 1994 genocide in the country.

Both in the Gabonese region and in the African continent as a whole, anti-French sentiment is increasingly latent, especially as a result of the withdrawal of French troops from Mali and Burkina Faso, as well as Russia’s role in the region, which it has intensified further after the invasion of Ukraine.