Rwandan President Paul Kagame used the 24th extra-ordinary summit of the East Africa Community (EAC) heads of state on the recent developments in the DR Congo to spit fire.
Held virtually, the meeting was attended by Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Samia Suluhu of Tanzania, Kagame of Rwanda, Evarist Ndayishimiye of Burundi, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia, and William Ruto of Kenya.
The meeting was held days after M23 rebels took control of the city of Goma in Eastern DR Congo, creating a humanitarian crisis, and putting Rwanda and Kinshasa on the brink of war.
DR Congo, under President Felix Tshisekedi, accuses Kagame’s Rwanda of backing M23 rebels, a claim Kigali has continued to deny.
So, what did Kagame say in the meeting?
Watch the videos in the following reports to hear what the Rwandan leader said about DR Congo, M23 and Tshisekedi as well as South Africa, the international community and mercenaries:
President Kagame emphasized the need for all parties to participate in peace processes and talks, warning that “even if all of us were doing everything right, nothing is going to come out of it, until those mainly concerned are also part of it, participating and contributing to the success of the process through which they are getting the support.”
“Even if all of us were doing everything right, nothing is going to come out of it, until those mainly concerned are also part of it, participating and contributing to the success of the process through which they are getting the support.” President Kagame | Extra Ordinary Summit… pic.twitter.com/72aX3Dvgvv
— Presidency | Rwanda (@UrugwiroVillage) January 29, 2025
He then urged the presidents attending the meeting to understand the context of the DR Congo conflict and the the different interests at play in the mineral rich country.
“Mr Chairman, Your Excellencies, I want us that for whatever we are saying and whatever we intend to do we capture the context rightly and then proceed based on that, and maybe we can get somewhere. Otherwise if we keep saying good things to each other, being nice, and then each one fulfilling their own interests other than the common interests we have as East Africans, then I don’t see how we are going to contribute effectively to finding a solution,” submitted Kagame.
“The other day, two or three days ago, we lost people, there was a lot of shelling from eastern Congo, from Goma, killed a dozen people and injured hundreds. We will definitely take care of that, there is no question about it.”
"Mr Chairman, Your Excellencies, I want us that for whatever we are saying and whatever we intend to do we capture the context rightly and then proceed based on that, and maybe we can get somewhere. Otherwise if we keep saying good things to each other, being nice, and then each… pic.twitter.com/T7AYAdBSF9
— Presidency | Rwanda (@UrugwiroVillage) January 29, 2025
Kagame continued: ““They have displaced people, they have killed people, they have persecuted them on a daily basis for who they are. We have refugees who have been here for the last twenty plus years, just dislocated from Congo and sent to Rwanda because they say these are ethnic Tutsis, therefore, they belong to Rwanda, they don’t belong there.
We have MONUSCO, we have SAMIDRC, we have mercenaries, we have Burundi, we have FDLR that has joined them, and everybody is there watching this thing and we pretend like we don’t understand what has been going on for all these years? And then when things like these of last week erupted we behave like we are surprised, we are concerned about humanitarian crisis.
Isn’t persecuting people and killing people and displacing them part of that humanitarian concern? As East Africans we sit here and then do what about it?”
“They have displaced people, they have killed people, they have persecuted them on a daily basis for who they are. We have refugees who have been here for the last twenty plus years, just dislocated from Congo and sent to Rwanda because they say these are ethnic Tutsis,… pic.twitter.com/0paGKAtSLY
— Presidency | Rwanda (@UrugwiroVillage) January 29, 2025
DR Congo President Tshisekedi has previously threatened to attack Rwanda. But Kagame fired back, warning that Tshisekedi would destroy himself in the process. (See Details Here and There).
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