The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo H.E Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo has accused President Paul Kagame of Rwanda for being a warmonger, causing suffering and misery in the Eastern Congo and Africa at large.
President Tshisekedi is currently battling the M23 rebels in the mineral rich country, who he accuses of being sponsored by President Kagame.
He made the comments on December 4, 2022 while meeting youth representatives from all DR Congo provinces.
“Prides himself on being a master of wars, a specialist in war. If I were him, I would rather hide, instead of priding myself with such wicked schemes. How can a sane person be proud of spreading death and desolation? His actions are really shameful and I would actually qualify them as evil, diabolical,” President Tshisekedi said.
“Never hate foreigners, and in the case of Rwanda, never look at Rwandans as enemies. It’s Rwanda’s regime and Paul Kagame at its head who are the enemies of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwandans are our brothers and sisters, and they need our help to get rid of their leader because they are being oppressed, they need our aid to be liberated. Kagame is one of the degenerate African leaders.”
“They (Rwandans) have nothing to do with what their ruler is doing – imposing. Never look at them as enemies, but as brothers who need our solidarity in order to liberate Africa from backward rulers who use the 60s and 70s methods. Africa decided to move away from using arms, wars & divisionism…but it is because of rulers like Paul Kagame who self-appraise and feel proud of being specialists in war. For me, I disapprove and am haunted by that, to assume that wars, deaths and destruction are a solution.”
President Tshisekedi made the comments after President Kagame accused the Congolese leader of trying to create a situation that will postpone next year’s elections in the mineral rich nation.
While addressing a parliamentary session after the signing in of new members of the Cabinet on Wednesday last week, Kagame said “the whole world” was blaming Rwanda for the Congo crisis, but that it was H.E Felix Tshisekedi who was seeking to profit from the violence ahead of the presidential election scheduled for 20 December 2023.
In the DRC, the presidential election is a one-round election, coupled with legislative elections as well as elections for provincial deputies and communal councilors.
“This problem can be solved if a country that is heading for elections next year does not try to create the conditions for an emergency situation so that the elections do not take place,” Kagame said at a swearing-in ceremony for new cabinet members.
Felix Tshisekedi came to power in January 2019.
The electoral commission said this month that continuing insecurity in parts of the country would pose a challenge to a “free, democratic and transparent” vote. The M23 is one of dozens of armed groups that have made eastern Congo one of the most violent regions in Africa.
A mostly Congolese Tutsi group, the M23 first leaped to prominence in 2012 by briefly capturing the city of Goma. After a peace deal in 2013, many M23 fighters were integrated into the military.
The group resumed fighting in late 2021, saying the DRC had failed to honour a pledge to integrate its fighters into the army, among other grievances. The rebel group is allegedly supported by Rwanda.
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