Rwanda announces that it will no longer host refugees from the DRC

The Rwandan president has justified the measure by appealing to the Congolese accusations for his support for the armed group M23

10 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, announced this Monday before the country’s Chamber of Deputies that Rwanda will not host any more refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in response to accusations from Kinshasa about alleged Rwandan support for the armed group. M23.

“There is a type of refugee that I think we will no longer accept. We cannot continue to host refugees, for whom we are then held responsible in some way, or even insulted,” Kagame said, stating that Rwanda cannot “bear the burden of the DRC refugees”, as reported by the radio station RFI.

In this way, the Rwandan president has urged “those who think it is a problem of Rwanda and not of the Congo” to remove the Congolese who are in their territory.

“Those who arrive every day, due to the actions of their government and institutions, who say that the Government is not working properly, that is still not my problem. And if it is my problem, it is yours too, as an international community I’m talking to you, it’s as much your problem as it is mine,” he added.

The Rwandan government has repeatedly denied its alleged support for the rebels, despite the fact that United Nations experts stated in a recent report that the Rwandan authorities maintain a “direct intervention” in neighboring DRC.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Rwanda was hosting more than 76,000 Congolese in its territory at the end of November, some for more than twenty years, while the local media consulted by the aforementioned station speak of more than 2,000 new arrivals in the last two months.