Oct. 30 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Rwandan government has rejected the “regrettable” decision of the Congolese authorities to expel their ambassador to the country, in what they consider an attempt to turn Rwanda into a “scapegoat” of the progress made in recent hours by the movement rebel M23, a group allegedly linked to the Rwandan authorities.
The spokesman for the Congolese government, Patrick Muyaya, recognized this past Saturday that the advance of the M23 in the towns of Rugari, Kiwanja and, above all, central Rutshuru, in the east of the country, poses a “threat to national security”, according to statements collected by the Congolese news portal Politico.
The seizure of the center of Rutshuru initially clears the path of the rebels to the capital of North Kivu, Goma, on the same border with Rwanda, and right now the place where thousands of people are fleeing throughout this end of week.
The Congolese government has attributed this advance to the “massive arrival in recent days of elements of the Rwandan Army to support the M23 terrorists” with a view to a “general offensive against the positions of the Congolese armed forces”. For this reason, the DRC Superior Defense Council ended up proposing to the government the immediate expulsion of the Rwandan ambassador, Vincent Karega.
The expulsion of the ambassador, in the opinion of the Rwandan government, is nothing more than “another attempt by the Congolese authorities to cover up and distract people from their own mistakes in government and security,” lamented the Rwandan government in a statement published this Sunday by the newspaper ‘The New Times’, in which he warns that his forces on the border with the DRC “remain on alert” in the face of this “intensification” of the crisis.
As it has done on other occasions, Rwanda accuses the Congolese Army of “acting in collusion” with the main Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) “and its attempts to bombard the border with heavy artillery.”
The Rwandan government also draws attention to “the constant hate speech” that the Congolese authorities are spreading about the Rwandans and the Kiñaruanda communities” living on the border between the two countries.
In general terms, Rwanda considers it “regrettable” that the Congolese government “continues trying to turn Rwanda into a scapegoat to cover up its failures” and reiterates that the country “remains committed to a sustainable and peaceful solution” to the crisis in the area .
