Members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) assembly taking place in Bahrain voted against a proposal by DR Congo lawmakers to consider the alleged involvement of Rwanda in their country’s conflicts. During the session, André Mbata Mangu, First Vice-President of DR Congo’s National Assembly, asked the IPU assembly to adopt a resolution to put an end to the “aggression by Rwanda and the support to the M23 rebels by Rwanda” ALSO READ: Kigali declaration outlines ‘actions to achieve gender equality in parliaments’ But the proposal failed to get the two-thirds majority required for an emergency item to be discussed by the IPU assembly. Only 88 members of the assembly voted in favor of the proposal while 705 voted against it; and 700 abstained. To be accepted, the proposal needed at least 529 positive votes. ‘Distraction from the real cause of Congo conflict’ Senate Vice President Esperance Nyirasafari, who is leading the Rwandan delegation, told the assembly that the accusation by DR Congo’s MPs was a distraction from the “real cause of the continued conflict” in the east of the country and its impact on regional security. Nyirasafari reminded the assembly that there are more than 120 armed groups operating in DR Congo. “The government of the DRC needs to take full ownership of its internal problem, instead of scapegoating Rwanda as the main source of DRC governance failures,” she said. ALSO READ: Count on Rwanda's support to pacify DR Congo - Kagame “It should refrain from hate-spreading speeches against Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese, especially Tutsi Congolese, and their killings.” Nyirasafari added that the Congolese government should “prioritise a political solution to the crisis, rather than pursuing a military option, which can only lead to further suffering among the civilian population and aggravate ethnic tensions.” Rwanda’s security concerns She stressed the need for the Congolese army to end its collaboration with the FDLR, a UN-sanctioned terrorist group founded by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. “FDLR, the genocidal militia that fled to Congo after killing more than one million of Tutsi..., is still active in the DRC in collaboration with the [Congolese] army and remains among the biggest threats to peace and stability to Rwanda,” she said. ALSO READ: Congolese MPs pressure Tshisekedi to address FDLR presence Nyirasafari added: “There cannot be durable peace without the neutralization of the FDLR. Rwanda has always worked within regional frameworks to contribute to stability in our region, but we cannot accept for Rwanda’s security concerns to be trivialized and ignored.” More than 20 years, the group has launched attacks on Rwanda from eastern DR Congo. A 2019 attack by one of its factions killed 14 people in Musanze District in northern Rwanda. The FDLR is accused of spreading the genocide ideology in eastern DR Congo, which led to the escalation of the persecution of Congolese Tutsi communities. Due to ethnic violence, more than 72,000 Congolese refugees have fled to Rwanda since 1996.
