APA – Kigali (Rwanda) – Belgium’s foreign minister Hadja Lahbib has called on the Congolese government to end ties with the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned militia linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Reports quoted Lahbib Thursday as urging for a political resolution of the conflict in eastern DR Congo, where the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) are fighting M23 rebels.
The Congolese army, or FARDC, is pursuing a military campaign, with a coalition comprising militias like FDLR, as well as troops from Burundi and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which started deploying a regional force in December 2023.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on February 12 ordered the deployment of 2,900 soldiers to eastern DR Congo, as part of the SADC deployment, despite objections by his country’ main opposition party.
“Congolese authorities must put an end … to any collaboration of FARDC armed groups and the FDLR armed group,” Lahbib was quoted as saying.
“It is also essential that messages of hatred and calls for violence end. The solution to any conflict, whatever it may be, is never military,” she said.
Rwanda has, for years, called on the Congolese government to end the collaboration with the FDLR, which has launched attacks on Rwandan territory over the past two decades.
Among other provocations against Rwanda, FARDC and FDLR collaborated in shelling rockets on Rwandan territory in May 2022.
The FDLR launched attacks on Rwanda in 2019 when fighters of RUD Urunana, one of its factions, killed 14 civilians in Musanze District in Northern Province. Despite denial of the cooperation with the FDLR, the Congolese armed forces in November 2023 ordered its soldiers to end ties with members of the terrorist group. But the genocidal militia’s members continued to be incorporated into the Congolese army.
CU/abj/APA