By Enyichukwu Enemanna
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa and his Rwanda’s counterpart, Paul Kagame have engaged in war of words over the conflict in DRC by Kigali-backed rebel group, M23 that has displaced thousands of people.
Ramaphosa has accused Rwanda of backing the rebel group behind the escalating crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Doma this week.
South African troops are part of the contingent deployed to the war-torn DRC 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.
South Africa lost at least 13 soldiers a recent surge in fighting by M23 militia making a rapid advance and seizing partial control of the key city of Goma in North Kivu province on Sunday night
Ramaphosa in a written statement on Wednesday said the M23, and what he called “a Rwandan Defense Force militia,” were responsible for the casualties, a sentiment shared by the Defence Minister, Angie Motshekga.
“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.
In response to the allegation, Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused Ramaphosa of “lying” and warned of possible “confrontation.”
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.
