Kagame Pans UN Report That Puts Rwanda at Center of Congo Crisis
(Bloomberg) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame said his nation has nothing to do with M23 rebels operating in mineral-rich territories in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and dismissed a United Nations group of experts’ findings that his forces were helping the militia seize territory and mines.
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“These people fighting did not come from Rwanda,” with the bulk of them — including the M23’s leaders — emanating from Uganda, he told reporters in Kigali, the capital. “It just doesn’t make sense” to blame Rwanda for the conflict and won’t help resolve the problems the region is facing, he said on Thursday.
An interim report released by the UN experts on Wednesday detailed how M23 has seized Congolese towns with the help of neighboring Rwanda and set up parallel government administrations to control key mines and trade routes since April.
The conflict continues despite a cease-fire reached between Congo and Rwanda last year, “suggesting that M23’s true objective remained territorial expansion, and long-term occupation and exploitation of conquered territories,” the experts said in their report presented to the United Nations Security Council. At least 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan troops are deployed in eastern Congo, with every M23 unit supervised and supported by Rwandan special forces, they said.
Kagame questioned the experts’ integrity and motives, rejected their conclusions and accused them of ignoring violations committed in broad daylight by the Congolese army and police force and other groups.
“The whole thing has shifted from what the problem really is to some other imaginary problem they have created,” he said. “This problem is not insurmountable, it can be addressed. It can end — it should have ended in actual fact a long time ago — but you can’t end it by manipulation.”
The conflict in eastern Congo has reached a level of violence not seen in more than a decade since M23 re-launched a rebellion in 2021. It has displaced millions of people and undermined years of effort to cut the link between armed groups and the trade in minerals like tin and tantalum that are essential for portable electronics.
The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of Congolese Tutsis and other speakers of the Rwandan language in the country.
M23 took control of one of the world’s biggest coltan mines in April and is making millions shipping minerals to Rwanda for export, according to the UN experts, who found it “controlled the trade and transport of around 120 tons of coltan monthly.”
In 2023, Congo and Rwanda mined about 1,500 tons of tantalum, which is extracted from coltan, representing about 63% of world production, according to the US Geological Survey.
The US and EU both have conflict-mineral laws requiring many companies to monitor their supply chains from the region.
Last month, Congo sued Apple Inc. in Belgium and France for allegedly buying minerals from Rwanda that had been “pillaged” from Congo. Apple disputed the charges and said it asked its suppliers to stop sourcing minerals from the area.
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