Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC) as being a belligerent force and said South Africa – as a mission contributor – is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator.
Kagame on Wednesday in a post on X added that if South Africa “prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.”
The Rwandan leader’s tough words came ahead of a Friday 31 January SADC summit in Harare, Zimbabwe, to discuss the security situation in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels this week took over the city of Goma, and are now advancing south.
It has been speculated that the SADC might withdraw its forces from the DRC and push for a ceasefire and peace talks, Daily Maverick reported. SADC members have been lacklustre in their support of SAMIDRC, with just South Africa, Tanzania, and Malawi contributing troops to the mission, which is mandated to help the DRC government “neutralize negative forces and armed groups in the Eastern DRC.”
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, this week said, “there is consensus that the only way forward is a ceasefire; it’s a political engagement that President Ramaphosa has always spoken about from the onset in the DRC process. The President has always said that the solution is a political engagement.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday said he spoke to Kagame twice this week and insisted that a ceasefire must hold.
“I held two conversations this week with President Ramaphosa on the situation in Eastern DRC, including earlier today,” Kagame said yesterday. “What has been said about these conversations in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies. If words can change so much from a conversation to a public statement, it says a lot about how these very important issues are being managed.”
Kagame made “a few important clarifications for the record,” including that “SAMIDRC is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation. It was authorized by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC Government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself.”
The Rwandan President accused SAMIDRC of displacing a “true peacekeeping force, the East African Community Regional Force, and this contributed to the failure of the negotiation processes.”
Ramaphosa, Kagame said, asked for support to ensure the South African force has adequate electricity, food and water, “which we shall help communicate.”
“President Ramaphosa confirmed to me that M23 did not kill the soldiers from South Africa, FARDC did,” Kagame said, in reference to crossfire between the M23 and DRC government forces that resulted in several SA National Defence Force fatalities.
“If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator,” Kagame warned. “And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.”
It is understood that South African troops in Sake and Goma have a truce with the M23, who essentially have them under rebel control, but that the South African soldiers have been allowed to keep their weapons and equipment for now. They may be allowed to leave the DRC via Rwanda at a later stage. The Tanzanian and Malawian contingents seem to be facing a similar situation.
On Wednesday Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga said South African soldiers were “in a safe place” with no attacks on them in the last 48 hours.
There are reports that South Africa is readying reinforcements in the wake of the death of 13 soldiers over the last week – possibly including Gripen fighter jets, but Ramaphosa has emphasised that the only solution to the DRC crisis is a diplomatic and political one.
The East African Community met to discuss the DRC on 29 January, and called for a peaceful settlement of the conflict and engagement of stakeholders, including M23 and other armed groups. It also called for a ceasefire but little concrete action other than a joint EAC-SADC summit “to deliberate the way forward.”
