Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have agreed to facilitate safe, voluntary and dignified repatriation of refugees.
The agreement was made on Monday in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, following the conclusion of a tripartite meeting held between the governments of Rwanda, DRC and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Briefing journalists the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Barham Salih, said the agreement intends to promote peace, security, stability, and find out durable solutions to forced displacement across the region.
“The two parties reaffirmed their commitment to the voluntary, safe, dignified, and informed return of refugees as a cornerstone of durable solutions and building peace and stability in the region,” he said.
The communiqué dispatched right after the agreement noted that DRC hosts 196,289 Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers, including 75,421 who have been biometrically registered, while 84,456 Congolese refugees and asylum seekers are hosted in Rwanda.
According to the communiqué, the two sides recognised the achievement of continued facilitation of voluntary repatriation from DRC to Rwanda, noting that 8,394 people have been repatriated safely since January 2025, of which 2,347 in 2026.
“There is a plan to repatriate 10,000 Rwandan refugees from DRC in the near future and both sides agreed to repatriate their citizens from each other’s countries starting from the month of October 2026,” he said.
The parties also agreed to use the border-crossing point at Kamanyola/South Kivu, DRC Bugarama/Rwanda, in order to facilitate repatriation of over 3,600 Rwandan refugees currently dispersed over a large geographic area of the southern part of South Kivu Province.
The DRC expressed commitment to continuing its efforts to establish a viable transit route at border-crossing points for the return of refugees from the southern part of South Kivu.
MG/as/APA