3 June 2022
Congo summoned Rwanda’s ambassador and suspended RwandAir flights to Congo over the weekend in response to what it said was Kigali’s support for M23 rebels carrying out a military offensive in its eastern borderlands.
Rwanda denies the claims and has in turn accused Congo’s army of fighting alongside the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group founded by ethnic Hutus who fled Rwanda after participating in the 1994 genocide.
Biruta said FDLR fighters were among the ranks of Congo’s army when their shells allegedly destroyed houses and injured people on the Rwandan side of the bord.
The clashes threaten to unravel relations between the two countries, which had improved since Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi came to power three years ago.
The M23 insurgency stems from the long fallout from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
