South African, Rwandan leaders in war of words over DR Congo

Johannesburg — 

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has lashed out at South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, after Ramaphosa accused Rwanda of backing the M23 rebels behind the escalating crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this week. Kagame has accused Ramaphosa of "lying" and warned of possible "confrontation."

South Africa has troops deployed in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a U.N. peacekeeping mission there, as well as in a separate deployment by the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, aimed at backing up Congolese forces fighting rebels.

But Pretoria is under pressure this week after 13 South African soldiers were killed in a recent surge in fighting that resulted in the M23 militia – which Rwanda is widely accused of backing – making a rapid advance and seizing partial control of the key city of Goma in North Kivu province on Sunday night.

Ramaphosa said in a written statement on Wednesday that the M23, and what he called “a Rwandan Defense Force militia,” were responsible for the casualties, while his minister of defense, Angie Motshekga, went one step further.

“It’s just that at that stage, when they were firing above our heads, the president did warn them to say, ‘If you are going to fire, we’ll take it as a declaration of war.’”

The remarks by Ramaphosa and Motshekga have caused a diplomatic spat with Kigali.

Kagame verbally hit back in an angry statement posted to his social media on Wednesday night, saying the Rwandan Defense Force was not a militia and quote, “if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.”

He also disputed Ramaphosa’s statement that the dead South African soldiers were “peacekeepers,” saying the SADC force was engaged in “offensive combat operations.”

“I spoke with the president of South Africa, who sought me out to speak with me, on this matter, because of their involvement in eastern Congo, and he’s also there pretending to be playing a peacemaker role. M23 are not Rwandans, please, and South Africa dares even issue threats,” he said.

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola has directly blamed Rwanda for backing the M23, saying reports by U.N. experts proved Kigali’s involvement. He said on Wednesday that South Africa had taken part in an African Union meeting on the crisis.

“As South Africa, we participated in that platform and put our position across, which is that there is a ceasefire, immediate cessation of hostilities… and, also, to request all the forces that are supporting M23, to also cease all support immediately,” he said.

Mineral-rich eastern Congo, which borders Rwanda, has been plagued by conflict for more than three decades. The current fighting stems partly from the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The perpetrators fled across the border to North Kivu, and Rwanda says they now represent a security threat to its territory.

The Congolese government has accused Kigali of being active in eastern Congo, saying Kigali is after the area’s vast mineral wealth.