Foreign affairs minister Olivier Nduhungirehe has accused DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi of a consistent pattern of failing to honour peace agreements, saying he has already undermined the latest one – the Washington Accords signed last week with President Paul Kagame.
In an interview with the national broadcaster, Nduhungirehe said the latest violation entails a series of attacks in South Kivu carried out since early this month by the FARDC, alongside Burundian forces and Wazalendo militias which include the FDLR genocidal group, targeting Banyamulenge civilians and the AFC-M23.
The diplomat noted that such a pattern is not new with Tshisekedi who has a history of blocking peace initiatives, including the Nairobi and Luanda peace processes.
"People should know the truth about those processes (Nairobi and Luanda),” he said, recalling that the Nairobi process, which was an EAC-led inter-Congolese dialogue, fell apart after Tshisekedi chose to single out the M23 movement and expel it from the talks.
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"So, he himself killed the Nairobi process,” he noted.
Despite the challenges, the EAC member states continued with the peace efforts and finally achieved a ceasefire in March 2023 after deploying the EAC regional force in eastern DR Congo. The ceasefire held until December of that year when Tshisekedi decided to expel the regional force.
Nduhungirehe further cited difficulties around the agreed CONOPS, a concept of operations to neutralise the FDLR and allow Rwanda to lift defensive measures. This, he said, was also hindered by Tshisekedi as he blocked its final progress by refusing direct talks with M23.
After all that, Nduhungirehe said, the DR Congo president requested US mediation hoping to be favoured but was surprised when Washington took a "rational position.”
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Even after signing the Washington Accords on December 4, Tshisekedi continued to make hostile remarks in Kinshasa days after, but Nduhungirehe said he was not surprised by that.
"I would recall that President Tshisekedi had, in 2023, promised to bomb Kigali without setting a foot on the ground. He promised to help the Rwandan youth overthrow what he called a diabolical government,” he said.
"Even last year, in Rwanda, we had signed a ceasefire that went into force on August 4. Then what happened at that time?” he asked before noting that Tshisekedi then embarked on further militarisation with the introduction of more Burundian troops and foreign mercenaries.
Nduhungirehe referred to it as "strange and cynical" for a president or government that openly violates ceasefires to turn and complain about ceasefire violations.
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Nduhungirehe also called out the international community for ignoring the repeated ceasefire violations by DR Congo and only reacting when the AFC-M23 responds.
"We have been alerting them for the past weeks and months about what was going on. In a conflict, when you strike every day on the other party......the other party, at some point, reacts. So why would the international community wake up suddenly now, while the situation was going on for several weeks and months?” he asked.