AFP
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said Thursday that South African troops had no place in the eastern DR Congo battlefield. He added that he was ready to "deal" with any confrontation from Pretoria.
Thirteen South African soldiers have died in the past week in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as Rwanda-backed M23 fighters seized more territory, including the key regional city of Goma.
The South Africans were part of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) peacekeeping force and the Southern African Development Community's Mission in DRC (SAMIDRC).
In a post on X, Kagame said the SAMIDRC "is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation".
"It was authorised by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC Government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR, which target Rwanda," he added.
I held two conversations this week with President Ramaphosa on the situation in Eastern DRC, including earlier today. What has been said about these conversations in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate… https://t.co/i78aqtVjpr
— Paul Kagame (@PaulKagame) January 29, 2025
Rwanda says its main goal in eastern DRC is to eradicate the FDLR (the French acronym for the Democratic Liberation Front of Rwanda), formed from remnants of the forces which committed the 1994 genocide that left some 800,000 dead.
Kagame held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday following the troop deaths.
He denied there were any warnings from South Africa that further clashes would be considered "a declaration of war", as reported in several media.
But Kagame warned: "If South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day."
© Agence France-Presse
