Rwanda is unlawfully occupying the Democratic Republic of Congo and seeking to orchestrate regime change, according to the DR Congo’s foreign minister.
Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner said this followed decades of impunity and failure to hold Rwandan President Paul Kagame accountable for violating international law.
Her comments come after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels captured the eastern Congolese city of Goma and threatened to continue their offensive to the capital, Kinshasa, which is 2,600km (1,600 miles) away.
Rwanda’s government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo denied the accusation and said its troops were deployed to prevent the conflict spilling over to its territory.
We’re not interested in war, we’re not interested in annexation, we’re not interested in regime change,” Ms Makolo said.
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc), a regional bloc made up of 16 members, is holding a special meeting on Friday in Zimbabwe to discuss the situation in DR Congo.
Sadc has sent peacekeeping troops, primarily from South Africa, to DR Congo to combat armed groups like the M23 and restore peace in the mineral-rich region after decades of unrest.
Sixteen soldiers from southern African countries have been killed in clashes with the M23 around Goma in the past week.
In a war of words with his South African counterpart, Rwanda’s President Kagame said the Sadc troops were “not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation”.
The fighting has worsened the humanitarian crisis in eastern DR Congo as the M23 has captured large areas of North Kivu district.
