Kinshasa accuses Kigali of supporting the M23 rebels and will not accept Rwanda’s participation in the regional force.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said he would not mind his country being excluded from a regional military force battling rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, removing a potential stumbling block to the initiative.
The seven East African Community (EAC) countries agreed in April to create a joint force to try to end decades of bloodshed in eastern Congo. Congo welcomed the plan but said it would not accept the participation of Rwanda, which it accuses of supporting the rebels, a charge Rwanda denies.
“I have no problem with that. We are not begging anyone to participate in the force,” Kagame told Rwandan state television on Monday.
“If someone is coming from anywhere except Rwanda, but is going to provide the solution we are all looking for, why should I have a problem?” Kagame asked in the wide-ranging interview.
Congo has accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group, which has been waging its longest offensive in Congo’s eastern border areas since seizing vast swathes of territory in 2012-2013.
Rwanda denies supporting the rebels and in turn accuses the Congolese army of firing into Rwandan territory and of fighting alongside the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group run by ethnic Hutu who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide.
The EAC urged local armed groups to join a political process to resolve their grievances or “be dealt with militarily,” the office of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who chairs the EAC, said in April.
Recent attempts to stop the violence militarily have failed, and in some cases backfired, security analysts and rights groups say.
Despite billions of dollars spent on one of the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping forces, more than 120 rebel groups continue to operate in large parts of eastern Congo nearly two decades after the official end of civil wars in the central African country.
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