Several hundred people demonstrated yesterday, Wednesday in the streets of Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, to protest against Rwanda, and Bukavu (eastern Congo), demanding that the Congolese authorities sever ties with Kigali. On Monday, a police-led demonstration had already taken place outside the Rwandan embassy.
“Hundreds of people in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, chanted “Let the Rwandans go home!
At the origin of the crisis between the DRC and Rwanda, Kinshasa accuses Kigali of being behind the former armed rebellion that has taken up arms in the east of the country, causing massive population displacements. Last Tuesday, the Congolese authorities reaffirmed these accusations against Rwanda before the UN Security Council, while remaining open to dialogue. For its part, Paul Kagame’s country had maintained that it would retaliate in case of attacks on its territory from the DRC.
Thus, like a series that continues from season to season, eastern DRC is again the scene of confrontations between the M23 rebel movement and the Congolese army (FARDC). And, as in every new season, the national army is struggling to contain this offensive alone. As a result, the population, on the initiative of citizens’ movements, took to the streets to demand the expulsion of the Rwandan ambassador and to express their support to the army. “We have come to demand the expulsion of the ambassador and the severance of diplomatic relations with Rwanda, the aggressor country,” said Bienvenu Matumo, a leader of the movement Lutte pour le changement (Lucha) .
Furthermore, “This demonstration would like to express the indignation and anger of the Congolese population in the face of this slightly more bellicose attitude of our neighbour Rwanda, which is curiously not at its first forfeit,” said Jean Chrysostome Kijana, a Congolese activist.
The demonstrators, apparently very angry, ask their authorities not to give in to any negotiations. “We also want to tell the government not to negotiate with the M23’s [les rebelles] and warn the international community against asking them to do so,” added Bienvenu Matumo.
At the end of the demonstrations, two memoranda addressed to the Head of State and the army were read out and deposited at the governorate. Above all, they demand the severance of diplomatic relations with Rwanda and the closure of the borders with this country considered as an “aggressor”.
Senegalese President Macky Sall, who also chairs the African Union, and Angola’s João Lourenço, chairman of the international conference on the Great Lakes region, are meeting with Congolese and Rwandan Presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagamé to try to find a way out of the crisis.
