The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has continued acts of aggression against Rwanda with the latest incident taking place in Rubavu District on the morning of Friday, June 17. The incident involved an armed Congolese soldier crossing the DRC-Rwanda border in Rubavu and indiscriminately started firing shots on the Rwandan side, leaving two Rwandan police officers injured. The DRC soldier who was armed with an AK-47 rifle targerted civilians and border security agents. The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) released a statement after the incident: “This morning at around 08 45 a.m., an unidentified Congolese soldier armed with an AK 47 rifle crossed the Petite Barrière border in Rubavu District and began shooting at Rwandan security personnel and civilians crossing the border, injuring two Rwandan officers. A Rwandan National Police officer on duty short back in self-defence, to protect civilians crossing the border and border agents.” The Congolese soldier was shot dead 25 metres inside Rwandan territory. The Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) was invited to investigate the incident, the RDF said in the statement. This is not the first act of aggression. On June 10, May 23 and March 19 this year, 122mm BM21 artillery rockets were fired from the DR Congo into Rwanda’s Districts of Musanze and Burera, resulting in several serious injuries to Rwandan citizens and damaged property. Again on May 28, two Rwandan soldiers on patrol along the common border, were kidnapped by elements of the FARDC-FDLR coalition and detained by DR Congo authorities. They were later released following mediation by Angolan President João Lourenço. In the border town of Goma, DRC government authorities recently planned and instigated demonstrations using civilians and security personnel, who went to the border post and started throwing stones at the Rwandan police officers guarding the border post at Rubavu. Rwanda has reported all these acts of provocation to the DRC Government, EJVM and the international community. Since the resumption of hostilities between M23 rebels and FADRC, DRC has escalated xenophobic attacks and hate speech against Rwandans and Congolese Tutsi in DRC. Although the DRC government claims that Rwanda supports M23 rebels, a MONUSCO spokesperson said in a recent interview that, “we have no factual confirmation,” rendering the claims as mere rumours. Rwanda has always rejected DRC accusations of supporting M23 rebels, referring to the conflict as an internal problem of the DRC government.
