MBABANE:Rwandan President Paul Kagame has openly declared that, his country is ready for ‘war’ with South Africa if necessary, as the conflict in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) worsens diplomatic relations between the two(2) countries amid allegations suggesting that, Kagame is supporting the M23 rebels.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation(SABC), reported on Thursday evening that, Kagame’s comments come subsequent to a claim by President Cyril Ramaphosa accusing the M23 rebels and Rwanda’s Defense Force of killing thirteen(13) South African soldiers in eastern DRC.
But Kagame consistently maintained that, South Africa cannot be a peacemaker, accusing President Cyril Ramaphosa of sending soldiers to assist the Democratic Republic of Congo army while claiming to be on a peacekeeping mission.
“On Monday and today, this morning, I spoke to the president of South Africa, on this matter because of their involvement in the Eastern Congo and he is also pretending to be playing a peacemaker role and has a force that has been fighting alongside FDLR. But he has been fighting M23 on the instruction of the Tshesekedi because these are the people who are not supposed to be in the Congo.M23 are not Rwandans, please! These are Congolese and one time we accept it, and then next he says no, part of it is here and the other part is from Rwanda.Why do leaders of our own countries accept these(allegations) to go on forever, and just accept that we shall be manipulated by Tshesekedi (Felix) or whoever is supporting him? And South Africa even dares issue threats about what would happen after that and so on and so forth. Of course, we will see what threats they are talking about,” said the Rwandan President as quoted by SABC.
Kagame further said, South Africa should have implemented the “threats” to “clean up” what is taking place in Eastern Congo, he described the international community as “confused” about what happening in the eastern DRC.
On another note, eSwatini Deputy Prime Minister(DPM) Thulisile Motsa-Dladla will be representing King Mswati in the Southern African Development Community(SADC) Summit to be held in Zimbabwe on Friday, the “main agenda is the escalating conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo”.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame(pic: SABC).