The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Olivier Nduhungirehe, in a speech delivered at the UN Security Council, on Thursday, March 27, questioned the accountability and transparency of the UN Mission in DR Congo (MONUSCO), accusing it of supporting the very militias it was deployed to neutralise. ALSO READ: VIDEO: Nduhungirehe on Rwanda-Belgium diplomatic standoff and way forward for DR Congo talks Addressing a session organised to give a brief on eastern DR Congo and presenting a report on MONUSCO’s work, the diplomat said that Rwanda, as a UN member and prominent contributor to peace support missions, stands firm in its support to peacekeeping and that is precisely why it “insists on accountability and transparency” for all those who are mandated to serve the cause of peace. He referred to MONUSCO as a case that has been “particularly troubling,” and questioned why there is “a recurrent pattern” of using its deliberations to push a narrative that fails to reflect reality on the ground. Commenting on the report presented to the council, he argued that while it accurately cited abusive armed groups like ADF, CODECO, the FDLR genocidal militia, and even the Congolese army as the main perpetrators of human rights violations, it singled out other actors as the primary cause of instability in eastern DR Congo. “As such, the report shows a clear pattern of bias in the reporting of the security crisis in that region,” he said, as he stressed MONUSCO's long-standing failure to implement the mandate with which it was entrusted with 25 years ago, which is the eradication of all armed groups, including FDLR. The latter is a DR Congo-backed terrorist militia formed by the remnants of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. ALSO READ: Rwanda welcomes de-escalation efforts in eastern DR Congo Recalling that he was sitting in the council in 2013, when a resolution was taken to deploy a Force Intervention Brigade within MONUSCO, with a specific mandate to neutralise all armed groups, including FDLR, the envoy expressed regret that MONUSCO’s operational focus was exclusively directed at M23 rebels. MONUSCO-FIB refused to neutralise FDLR, which continued to create havoc in eastern DR Congo even today, in 2025, he said. In fact, since 2003, this Council has reiterated the need to address the threat of the FDLR through more than 20 different resolutions,” he pointed out. “After billions of dollars spent on what remains the UN's most expensive peacekeeping mission in history, meaningful results remain elusive. As a result, Congolese civilians, especially Tutsi, have continued to be targeted for persecution, discrimination, and forced displacement,” he added. Nduhungirehe gave examples of the crises that have happened in DR Congo, including in October 2023 when a whole village of 300 homes of Congolese Tutsi, was burned down by the DR Congo-backed militias in Masisi territory. “Where was MONUSCO at that time?” he asked. “Since February this year, Banyamulenye villages in South Kivu are being bombed by attack drones and fighter jets from DRC. Where is MONUSCO?” he added. More alarmingly, he noted that MONUSCO has provided direct support to the military operation of the Congolese army coalition, placing itself in a situation of belligerence, even sometimes fighting alongside the same groups it was created to neutralise. “I shall here note the presence of European mercenaries in this coalition. Those mercenaries were deployed in violation of a UN Convention of 1989 and were working alongside the DRC army and MONUSCO,” he argued. Rwanda has raised these concerns repeatedly before the council, he said, but they have never been addressed. He insisted that the country continues to believe that MONUSCO can still change its course and play a positive role, if it abides by its mandate to protect civilians, ensure humanitarian assistance, and possibly providing logistical support to the joint EAC-SADC efforts currently under discussion.
