Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday warned about the possible involvement of foreign mercenaries in the current conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and said if these reports were confirmed, the neighboring country is likely moving towards “chaos”.
Skeaping while presiding over the swearing-in of the new President of the Rwandan Senate in Kigali, the Rwandan President said Rwanda will not accept to bear the burden for the DRC’s responsibilities.
“The reason this situation prevails is because the DRC is unwilling or unable to govern its territory. The usual problem we have currently in our neighborhood which keeps bringing up Rwanda’s name in all sources of ways (…) I am refusing that Rwanda should carry this burden,” Kagame said.
When a situation is relying on mercenaries, according to Kagame, the situation is a mess.
“When it comes to Rwanda to deal with mercenaries, we are overstock to deal with these useless people,” he said.
According to him, Rwanda has accommodated refugees from different places (…) There is one type of refugee we are not going to accept (…) we cannot keep being host for which later on we are held accountable (…) Rwanda is not a dumping ground of these people who are being deprived of their rights,” he said.
Estimates by the the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)at the end of 2021, Rwanda hosted slightly over 127,000 refugees, mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi. Of these, 76% are women and children.
“The international community should understand that this is not Rwanda’s problem,” Kagame said, adding that his Government is going to ensure that everybody realizes that the current situation (in Eastern DR Congo) is not Rwanda’s problem.
CU/abj/APA