Congolese President Thinks Rwandans Are As Gullible As His People

 


It is election season in DR Congo. President Felix Tshisekedi doesn’t have anything to show for the time he has been in power since 2018.

What better way to find a scapegoat. Rwanda was the perfect one, no different from his predecessors.

There had to be a war. There has to be an emergency. There has be killings. There has to be mass displacement. There has to be xenophobic tempers against non Congolese. The perfect victim is ofcourse the Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese.

Mobutu Ssese Sseko used the same tactic. Laurent Desire Kabila did too. The government of Joseph Kabila was no different. It has been the same script.

All the self-inflicted crisis, so reasons Tshisekedi, will cause anger against an already pinpointed scapegoat.

What Tshisekedi had forgotten is that Rwanda and it’s people are not as gullible as he is or the Congolese themselves. The have allowed themselves to be very easily hoodwinked with an imaginary crisis, then told who to blame.

The Congolese don’t see that their President doesn’t have answers to their problems.

The latest such imaginary crisis is the war with Congolese rebels; the M23. Because Rwandan leaders don’t want a regional crisis on their border, have been willing to meet up to find ways to end the war on its border.

The summit in Angola bringing together President Kagame and Congolese leader Tshisekedi hosted by the Angolan President, was simply a goodwill gesture on the part of Rwanda. It wants to help the Congolese.

The demands of Rwanda have been the same for the past two decades. For security at the country's border to be assured, the genocidal militia FDLR, needs to be dealt with as the terrorist group that they are. Rwanda has made it clear it doesn’t expect the FDLR to be given the support to attack Rwanda and for DRC not to allow or facilitate shelling of Rwandan territory.

The second element is that the Luanda roadmap agreement to address the issue of FDLR and its splinter groups as well as the commitment by DRC to address the issue of hate speech against Rwandophones, is a step in the right direction. An important step is also the agreement to provide the right conditions for the return of 130,000 Congolese refugees back to their country.

As for the issue of M23 withdrawal, which was also part of Luanda summit roadmap, the withdrawal is as agreed upon through the Nairobi process.

As President Kagame mentioned during the media briefing in Angola, M23 is an internal Congo problem that needs to be addressed politically.

Rwanda has no interest in supporting M23 or destabilizing the region. In any case, it is Rwanda that would have a lot more to lose because it is building an economy that is dependent on having international investors, conference attendees and tourists. They cannot come to a chaotic region.

President Kagame's priority is the security of his people. He will be expected to do everything in his power to ensure nothing affects their wellbeing.

 

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