The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, has refuted the statements made by the Spokesperson of the Government of the DRC, who claimed that the Joint Security Mechanism between this country and Rwanda would include the withdrawal of AFC/M23 from the territories it controls. Nduhungirehe said that is a blatant lie.
Minister Nduhungirehe made the clarification in a message posted on social media platform X, following an interview broadcasted on Top Congo, where Patrick Muyaya, the Minister of Communication and Media and Government Spokesperson of the Democratic Republic of Congo, stated that the M23 coalition must withdraw from the areas it has taken.
This interview came after the Government of the DRC signed a document outlining principles that will govern the agreement between it and AFC/M23, signed in Doha, Qatar.
Muyaya stated that “the AFC/M23 coalition must withdraw from the areas it has seized,” and that “this is part of the mandate of the Joint Security Coordination Mechanism (JSCM), which will be jointly run by the Governments of the DRC and Rwanda, as set forth in the peace agreements signed in Washington DC between the two countries.”
In response to these statements, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe, said this was a lie.
He stated: “This is a blatant lie to the Congolese people, fabricated by the Spokesperson of the Government of the DRC and it is regrettable. Let me remind you that the JSCM is a joint mechanism between the DRC and Rwanda, and its primary mission is to eradicate the genocidaires of the FDLR and secondly to dismantle Rwanda’s defensive measures.”
Minister Nduhungirehe went on to say that the AFC/M23 coalition has no role whatsoever within the mandate of this joint mechanism.
He added: “Again, the issue that the JSCM will address is the elimination of cross-border threats and the defensive measures that were established by Rwanda. The matter of AFC/M23 will have its own separate track and will be resolved through dialogue that addresses the root causes of the conflict, with the aim of achieving a sustainable solution.”
Benjamin Mbonimpa, the Secretary General of AFC/M23, who also represented the coalition during the signing of the Doha agreement, also refuted Patrick Muyaya’s claims, insisting that the coalition cannot give up even a single meter of the territory it controls.
He said: “AFC/M23 cannot even give up one meter; we will remain in the territories we control and continue governing them as we engage in dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict.”
The principles signed in Doha, Qatar, do not anywhere require AFC/M23 to withdraw from the territories it controls. Rather, both parties (the Government of the DRC and AFC/M23) are asked not to seize or lose any more territory.
In a statement delivered last month by the AFC/M23 Coordinator, Corneille Nangaa, to the Congolese people during the celebration of the 65th anniversary of DRC’s independence, he said the coalition now controls a territory of 34,000 square kilometers, inhabited by 11 million Congolese.
RADIOTV10
