Kenyan President William Ruto has called upon the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) to recognise that the M23 rebellion is a Congolese problem that needs a Congolese solution.
Speaking in an interview with Jeune Afrique on Tuesday, May 21, where he answered questions about the conflict in eastern DR Congo between the M23 and government forces, Ruto said: “As Heads of State, in a meeting, we asked; M23, the people in there, are they Rwandese or they are Congolese? And DRC said, these are Congolese. End of question!
“So, if these are Congolese, how does it become a Rwanda problem? How does it become a Kagame problem?”
Ruto also commented on the exit of the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) from DR Congo.
In early 2023, the East African Community deployed troops to the conflict-hit eastern DR Congo region, a development that led to a ceasefire from March to September 2023. However, in December of the same year, the Congolese government expelled EACRF and replaced it with a SADC mission which is operating under an offensive mandate.
“Kenya participated in the East African force that was in eastern DRC. We did what I consider a very commendable job. We pacified the area, we got the M23 to move away from the areas that we had agreed. In fact, we were remaining with the cantonment question. The M23 asked the question: ‘do we go into the camps, surrender our arms before we have a conversation, or do we have a conversation so that as we go into the camps, we know what the conversation is all about? Can we put our grievances on the table?’ And it made sense to all of us,” Ruto said.
Millions of civilians have died in the DRC war which has escalated after a disputed electoral victory that saw Tshisekedi retain power by force.
CREDIT: Additional Reporting by New York Times
