Rwandan President Paul Kagame has strongly denied accusations by the DR Congo that his country currently supports the M23 rebels in North Kivu region.
During a press conference in Kigali on yesterday, Kagame said Rwanda has nothing to do with the rebel group which has taken control of several territories in eastern DR Congo.
Kagame said it makes no sense to involve Rwanda in the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo which is an internal issue.
“These M23 leaders and the majority of their fighters came from Uganda, where they were refugees,” Kagame said, adding that the M23 rebels are not Rwandan, although they speak the Rwandan language, Kinyarwanda.
The DR Congo has continuously accused Kagame and Rwanda of supporting the M23 while a recent report by UN Group of Experts claimed that Rwandan forces were aiding the rebels in North Kivu.
However, Kagame retorted that the M23 fighters are Congolese, and even past and current leaders acknowledge this while also stating that his government had disarmed the M23 fighters who entered Rwandan territory in 2012-2013 and handed over their weapons to the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
