Rwanda says it will not accept DR Congo refugees any more

Rwandan president says his nation won’t shoulder the burden of internet hosting these fleeing the lethal battle in DR Congo.

Rwanda says it may not provide refuge to folks fleeing violence within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), stoking already excessive tensions between the central African neighbours.

Persistent preventing within the east of the mineral-rich DRC pits federal troops towards rebels from the M23 group, which has captured swaths of territory.

The DRC, together with the US and a number of other European international locations, has repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing the Tutsi-led rebels from M23, though Kigali denies the cost.

“We can not hold internet hosting refugees” from DR Congo, President Paul Kagame instructed the higher home of parliament within the capital Kigali on Monday. “This isn’t Rwanda’s drawback. And we’re going to be sure that all people realises that it isn’t Rwanda’s drawback.

“I’m refusing that Rwanda ought to carry this burden.”

Tensions have soared as a result of preventing and hundreds have fled the battles into neighbouring states, together with Rwanda.

In November, the UN stated about 72,000 Congolese refugees had crossed into Rwanda.

Kigali has repeatedly blamed Kinshasa for the disaster and accused the worldwide neighborhood of turning a blind eye to the DRC’s alleged help for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a primarily Rwandan Hutu insurgent motion implicated within the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Kigali sees the FDLR as a risk that justifies incursions into the DRC.

Rwanda has additionally accused the DRC – the place presidential elections are due this December – of utilizing the battle for political functions in addition to of “fabricating” a November bloodbath of at the very least 131 civilians. A UN probe blamed the deaths on M23 rebels.

A tentative ceasefire and the deployment of Kenyan forces by way of the East African Neighborhood (EAC) have to this point didn’t halt the bloodshed.